Collection: Chest injuries

Injuries to the chest, or thorax if it is also called, involve different types of risks than injuries to other parts of the body. Among other things, you can get something called overpressure pneumothorax (also called valve pneumothorax) and hemothorax. Positive pressure pneumothorax means that air fills up outside the lung into the pleura, but that it has nowhere to go. This in turn leads to the heart being compressed and unable to pump blood, ultimately leading to cardiac arrest. Thoracic bandages allow air to escape, but not go back in again. Similarly, fluid and blood can accumulate and lead to the same type of problem. Here, too, chest dressings allow fluid and blood to escape. These dressings are potentially life-saving in the case of gunshot wounds to the chest.