Disposable Bag for Thoracic Drainage.

The use of thoracic drains in connexion with water seals often causes difficulties, even in departments where these are used daily. The difficulties are (1) the cleaning of the bottles; (2) the fixing of the bottles to beds on which patients have to be moved; (3) that bottles break easily; and (4) that they take up too much space. In the University Hospital (Rigshospitalet) we have adopted a simple method. Instead of bottles, disposable bags' are used (Fig. 1). The capacity of the bag is about 1 i litres. It is filled with water to a level marked 500 ml., hangs on the bed by a metal hanger like the urine bags in general use, and is connected to the drain. At the top the bag has two pipe stubs of plastic. One is prolonged by a plastic tube reaching the bottom of the bag. This tube is fixed throughout its length to the inner side of the bag. The plastic tube, therefore, is always under the surface of the water, even when the bag sways widely.