Surgical Questions and Answers

Free Medical and Surgical Questions And Answers

12. What is a sucking wound of the chest?

Correct answer:

A pneumothorax will also result from a penetrating wound of the chest wall produced, for example, by a knife stab or gunshot wound. The lips of the wound may also have a valvular effect so that air is sucked into the cavity at each inspiration, but cannot escape on expiration, thus resulting in another variety of tension pneumothorax, which has been vividly named a sucking wound of the chest.