Can someone please explain chest tubes?
Modern chest tubes are attached to a 3-chamber collection system. The 3 chambers include the collection chamber, water seal chamber, and suction chamber. The collection chamber holds the pleural drainage. The water seal chamber is supposed to function as a barrier to direct communication with the chest tube/pleural space. By using filling it with a small amount of water, it prevents the backflow of air into the pleural space. Normally, the pressure changes in the pleural space should be directly transmitted to the chest tube, and finally to the water seal. Thus, the water seal chamber should tidal with respiration. Bubbles in the water seal indicate that air is entering from somewhere within the entire system – this could be from the lung itself (i.e. bronchopleural fistula), the chest wall (pleurocutaneous fistula), or a leak in the chest tube. The suction chamber is designed to prevent excessive negative pressure from being applied to the pleural space. It is usualy set to 20 cm of w
