Ultrasound for the Detection of Pleural Effusions and Guidance of the Thoracentesis Procedure

Table 1

Literature review comparing studies looking at the rates of pneumothorax associated with the thoracentesis procedure. Indexed to primary study author, rate of pneumothorax, and the rate of required chest tubes or Heimlich valves. Note columns corresponding to studies using ultrasound to the left and no ultrasound to the right. Prospective studies (Pro), retrospective studies (Retro), randomized controlled trials (RCT) and meta-analysis (MA) study types are all included in this review.

Author	Pneumothorax rate		Chest tube/Heimlich rate
	Ultrasound guided	No ultrasound	Ultrasound guided	No ultrasound
Adams and Galati 1978 Pro [25]	Not given		Not given
Balik et al. 2006 Pro [13]	0 of 92 (0%)
Barnes et al. 2005 Retro [26]	15 of 305 (4.9%)	15 of 145 (10.3%)	2 of 305 (0.7%)	6 of 145 (4.1%)
Boland et al. 1998 Retro [27]	19 of 512 (5.7%)
Brandstetter et al. 1994 Pro [28]	28 of 106 (26%)
Colt et al. 1999 Pro [29]	14 of 255 (5.1%)		2 of 255 (0.8%)
Duncan et al. 2009 Pro [30]	4 of 362 (1.1%),	5 of 58 (8.7%)	0
Gervais et al. 1997 Pro [22]	6 of 342 (1.8%)	4 of 92 (4.3%)	0	2 of 92 (2.2%)
Grogan et al. 1990 RCT [31]	0 of 19 (0%)	10 of 33 (30%)
Harnsberger et al. 1983 [32]	0 of 110 (0%)
Heidecker et al. 2006 Retro [33]	9 of 367 (2.5%)
Josephson et al. 2009 Pro [34]	34 of 735 (4.6%)		11 of 735 (1.5%)
Jones et al. 2003 Pro [35]	24 of 941 (2.6%)		8 of 941 (0.9%)
Liang et al. 2009 Retro [36]	0 of 133 (0%)
Lichtenstein et al. 1999 Pro [6]	0 of 45 (0%)
Mayo et al. 2004 Pro [37]	3 of 232 (1.3%)		3 of 232 (1.3%)
Mynarek et al. 2004 Retro [38]	20 of 711 (2.8%)		0
O'Moore et al. 1987 Retro [39]	17 of 187 (9.1%)		7 of 187 (3.7%)
Pihlajamaa et al. 2004 Retro [40]	11 of 264 (4.2%)		1 (0.4%)
Raptopoulos et al. 1991 Retro [41]	5 of 188 (2.7%)	27 of 154 (17.5%)	2%	7%
Ravin 1977 Retro [42]	0 of 6 (0%)
Yu et al. 1992 Pro [43]	1 of 25 (4%)
Gordon et al. 2010 MA [44]	4%	9.3%