European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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Multicenter Study
Accuracy of emergency physician-performed ultrasound in detecting traumatic pneumothorax after a 2-h training course.
Pneumothorax is one of the leading causes of preventable death in trauma patients. Chest radiograph has a lower sensitivity than a computed tomography (CT) scan for the diagnosis of pneumothorax. ⋯ After just a 2-h training course, emergency physicians showed a good success rate in finding pneumothoraces. Thoracic US can be an easy to learn and an accurate diagnostic modality for the detection of traumatic pneumothorax in emergency departments.