Journal of ultrasound in medicine : official journal of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of inadequate needle chest thoracostomy in the prehospital setting in trauma patients suspected of having a pneumothorax (PTX) on the basis of physical examination. ⋯ In this study, 26% of patients who received needle thoracostomy in the prehospital setting for a suspected PTX appeared not to have had a PTX originally, nor had 1 induced by the needle thoracostomy. It may be prudent to evaluate such patients with bedside ultrasound instead of automatically converting all needle thoracostomies to tube thoracostomies.