The Challenges of Keeping a Chest Tube Free of Clogging after Heart Surgery
Chest tubes are used on every case after heart surgery to drain blood from around the heart and lungs in the early hours of recovery.1,2 If there is any bleeding, or even oozing tissues, the blood must be immediately drained externally by the chest tubes. But chest tubes frequently clot, which can lead to Retained Blood Syndrome (RBS), which includes the need for re-interventions to wash out clot,…
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