A 14-year-old boy was admitted to our hospital due to persisting pleuritic pain in the right lower hemithorax, which presented after athletic activities. Chest X-ray showed a right hemothorax for which a chest tube was inserted. The patient’s medical history was positive for exostoses of both humeri and the left femur, for which he had undergone an operation at the age of 5 and 8 years, respect...

Eighteen patients with life-threatening traumatic hemothorax received prehospital autotransfusion using a simple new device. During transfer to the hospital, they received 3.9 +/- 0.5 L of colloid fluid and 4.1 +/- 0.6 L of autotransfused blood, without anticoagulation. Hemorrhagic blood was not coagulable, had a hematocrit of 20 +/- 4 percent, few platelets, and low fibrinogen levels. Five pat...

The lysis and aspiration of a clotted hemothorax by means of an effective enzymatic agent is highly desirable. Various enzymes have been used for this purpose but alt have certain disadvantages. Trypsin has an irritative effect of pleural pain on injection and often shows a toxic reaction due to the enzyme or breakdown of protein products.’ The inhibitor (antitrypsin) normally present in the se...