Introduction: Tension hydrothorax is an uncommon emergent condition in which hemodynamic instability and respiratory compromise may occur. Emergency physicians may diagnose tension hydrothorax by point-of-care ultrasound.
Case Series: We discuss the key sonographic features assisting in identification. Four patients with history of malignancy who were found to have tension hydrothorax exhibited the following common ultrasound findings: massive, left-sided pleural effusion; complete, compressive atelectasis; and shift of cardiac structures into the right hemithorax, resulting in right-sided probe placement to obtain cardiac views.
Conclusion: This is the first instance to our knowledge of point-of-care ultrasound findings in tension hydrothorax to be described in the literature.
","language":"eng","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","short_name":"CC BY 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"tension hydrothorax; point-of-care ultrasound"}],"section":"Case Series","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/91m4t3qh","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Allison","middle_name":"","last_name":"Clark","name_suffix":"","institution":"Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, Emergency Medicine Residency Program, Aventura, Florida","department":""},{"first_name":"Peyton","middle_name":"","last_name":"Lampley","name_suffix":"","institution":"Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, Emergency Medicine Residency Program, Aventura, Florida","department":""},{"first_name":"Vu","middle_name":"Huy","last_name":"Tran","name_suffix":"","institution":"Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, Emergency Medicine Residency Program, Aventura, Florida","department":""}],"date_submitted":"2023-08-02T18:21:26.100000Z","date_accepted":"2023-08-02T18:42:25.096000Z","date_published":"2023-08-14T16:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/uciem_cpcem/article/1584/galley/1127/download/"}]}