clinical features
Last reviewed 01/2018
Symptoms:
- may be asymptomatic
- rapid onset pleuritic chest pain
- breathlessness is seldom severe unless a tension pneumothorax develops
Signs:
- tachypnoea
- examination of the chest over a pneumothorax reveals:
- reduced expansion
- hyperresonance
- reduced breath sounds
- occasionally there is an inspiratory click
- in a tension pneumothorax:
- quick diagnosis and treatment are essential
- breathlessness may increase rapidly
- the shift of the mediastinum and apex beat is away from the side of the lesion
- cyanosis is unusual unless there is a tension pneumothorax or underlying lung disease