Chest Bandage, Chest Seal, Airtight Bandage - Dear child has many names
This is a type of dressing used for chest injuries. What is special about injuries to the chest, or thorax as it is called in medical language, is that the lungs are there. An injury to the chest can thus penetrate all the way down to the pleura and lungs.
When we breathe, we do so through negative pressure. That is, we have muscles that in one way or another expand the chest and in this way are "sucked" out so that these are filled with air. We have the diaphragm at the bottom, which is the most important muscle for breathing, and then we have so-called accessory muscles in the chest that help lift up and enlarge the chest. This is why, for example, we often put our hands on our knees leaning forward to breathe when we have run really fast. This allows the pectoral muscles that attach to the arm to help expand the chest. The lung itself is like a balloon within a balloon and it is when the first balloon expands that the second balloon follows.
If, on the other hand, we have a hole in the pleura, this will no longer work and we will not be able to breathe nearly as efficiently or at all. Sometimes it can also be the case that there are holes in the lung itself (not just the pleura) and then at the same time air will leak out all the time which we have to get rid of. And if it's not air, it could instead be blood or another liquid.
It is when this type of damage occurs that we need an airtight dressing, or sometimes an airtight dressing with a valve, these are usually also called Chest Seals or thoracic dressings .
Sometimes another type of injury can occur - if, for example, a knife causes the lung to leak air into the pleura, but the pleura itself is still intact. It can sometimes be caused by narrow, prickly things, as muscles and skin sometimes block the hole between the pleura and the outside of the chest. With each breath, the pleura will fill with a little more air. This air has nowhere to go and the lung will then slowly but surely be compressed. This can also occur when the amount of air leaking out of the lung exceeds the amount leaking out of the chest. When the lung is fully compressed, the excess pressure will start to press on the heart instead and eventually lead to a cardiac arrest. In the case of this type of injury, a chest drain or, as emergency relief, a decompression needle is needed instead.
