OVERVIEW
This page is dedicated to organizing various examples of standardized exam questions whose answer is hemothorax. While this may seem a odd practice, it is useful to see multiple examples of how hemothorax will be characterized on standardized exams (namely the boards and the shelf exams). This page is not meant to be used as a traditional question bank (as all of the answers will be the same), however seeing the classic “test” characterization for a disease is quite valuable.
QUESTION EXAMPLES
Question # 1
A 28-year-old man is stabbed in the left chest. He is moderately short of breath, has stable vital signs. No breath sounds on at the base on the left chest, faint distant breath sounds at the apex. Dull to percussion on the left side.
Explanation: trauma to chest + shortness of breath + absent breath sounds + dullness to percussion = hemothorax
Question # 2
A 34 year old male is brought to the emergency department after being involved in a motor vehicle collision. He is given 3 L of NS on is way to the hospital in the ambulance. He is agitated, and can move all four extremities spontaneously. His blood pressure is currently 80/55 mm hg, and his heart rate his 122/min. Respiratory rate is 28/min. His pupils are symmetric and reactive to light. The patient’s neck veins are flat, and his trachea is shifted to the left, breath sounds are diminished on the right, and there is dullness to percussion over the right lung field. What is the likely diagnosis?
Explanation: trauma + deviated trachea + absent breath sounds + dullness to percussion = hemothorax
Page Updated: 03.06.2017