The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 36, 93-96, Copyright © 1983 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Demonstration of pleural tube track tubularity
R Lautin, K Ledor and L Barek
The inflammatory reaction that is caused by the placement of a tube in the
pleural space persists after tube removal and may be observed on chest
roentgenograms. One radiological presentation of this reaction is a lucent
stripe, which represents localized iatrogenic pneumothorax in the track of
the tube. The possibility that this stripe may represent a tubular track is
not generally appreciated. We report two instances in which the
three-dimensional tubular nature of the tracks is demonstrated. Failure to
correlate such a stripe with roentgenograms showing the previous placement
of the chest tube at the site of a track may lead to confusion and
potentially serious misinterpretation.