Factors Associated with Chest Tube Placement in Blunt Trauma Patients with an Occult Pneumothorax

Table 1

Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study sample.

Variable	Total sample (n = 131)	Chest tube (n = 42)	No chest tube (n = 89)	value
Age	44.48 ± 22.09	48.67 ± 20.46	42.51 ± 22.67	0.1370
Sex
Female	45 (34.35%)	13 (30.95%)	32 (35.96%)	0.5736
Male	86 (65.65%)	29 (69.05%)	57 (64.04%)
Number of fractured ribs	4.33 ± 4.18	5.98 ± 4.21	3.55 ± 3.95	0.0017
Patients with rib fractures	97 (74.05%)	38 (90.48%)	59 (66.29%)	0.0032
Rib fracture type
Displaced	53 (54.64%)	27 (71.05%)	26 (44.07%)	0.0056
Nondisplaced	44 (45.36%)	11 (28.95)	33 (55.93%)
OPTX size				<0.0001
Small	112 (85.50%)	26 (61.90%)	86 (96.63%)
Moderate	16 (12.21%)	13 (13.95%)	3 (3.37%)
Large	2 (1.52%)	2 (4.76%)	0 (0.00%)
Unknown	1 (0.7%)	1 (2.38%)	0 (0.00%)
Smoking status				0.0656
Active	26 (19.85%)	8 (19.05%)	18 (20.22%)
Never	88 (67.18%)	25 (59.52%)	63 (70.79%)
Quit	7 (5.34%)	2 (4.76%)	5 (5.62%)
Unknown	10 (7.63%)	7 (16.67%)	3 (3.37%)
Intubated patients	47 (36.15%)	31 (75.61%)	16 (17.98%)	<0.0001
Mechanism of injury				0.3657
Bicyclist	4 (3.05%)	2 (4.76%)	2 (2.25%)
Fall	26 (19.85%)	6 (14.28%)	20 (22.47%)
Motor vehicle crash	62 (47.33%)	19 (45.24%)	43 (30.16%)
Motor cycle crash	17 (12.98%)	4 (9.52%)	13 (14.61%)
Pedestrian struck	20 (15.27%)	10 (23.81%)	10 (11.24%)
Hit by blunt instrument	2 (1.53%)	1 (2.38%)	1 (1.12%)
Oxygen saturation	97.47 ± 4.0	96.98 ± 5.80	97.71 ± 2.78	0.4458
Number of chest X-rays	6.34 ± 7.26	12.69 ± 9.41	3.34 ± 2.88	<0.0001
Hospital length of stay	9.69 ± 12.86	18.29 ± 17.88	5.63 ± 6.59	<0.0001
ICU length of stay	3.41 ± 5.08	6.64 ± 6.85	1.89 ± 3.00	<0.0001
ISS	20.99 ± 10.95	25.76 ± 14.15	18.74 ± 8.23	0.0042
RTS	7.33 ± 1.16	6.76 ± 1.61	7.59 ± 0.76	0.0031
POS	0.89 ± 0.18	0.80 ± 0.23	0.93 ± 0.14	0.0020
Prehospital RR	17.07 ± 6.03	16.11 ± 6.72	17.64 ± 5.57	0.2365
Prehospital PO2	91.35 ± 23.34	87.82 ± 23.72	93.06 ± 23.30	0.4536
Prehospital GCS	12.74 ± 4.02	12.03 ± 4.38	13.16 ± 3.78	0.2277
Mortality	12 (9.16%)	7 (16.67%)	5 (5.62%)	0.0408
Complication rate	31 (23.66%)	15 (35.71%)	3 (3.37%)	0.0003

Notes. ; OPTX = occult pneumothorax; ICU = intensive care unit; ISS = Injury Severity Score; RTS = Revised Trauma Score; POS = probability of survival; RR = respiration rate; PO₂ = partial pressure of oxygen; GCS = Glasgow Coma Scale.