Medical image of the week: NG tube misplacement with a pneumothorax

Abstract

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. Nasogastric tube (NG) placement is a common procedure performed in the inpatient hospital setting. They are often challenging to insert and therefore carry a risk of tracheobronchopleural, intravascular and enteral complications. Our patient is a 90-year-old man who was admitted to the hospital with complaints of productive cough, fever, worsening of shortness of breath and confusion. He was diagnosed with viral upper respiratory tract infection, Legionella pneumonia and exacerbation of heart failure. Throughout his hospitalization patient had repeated episodes of delirium and had failed a swallowing evaluation. A NG was inserted for administration of enteral feeds and medications. There was no resistance to the passage of the tube when initially placed. However, post procedure CXR showed a misplaced nasogastric tube going into the right main bronchus and down into right lower lobe with a small apical pneumothorax (Figure 1). Follow up chest X-ray two hours later showed enlargement of the …

Keywords

• pneumothorax
• nasogastric
• NG
• tube
• complication
• treatment
• blind insertion
• small caliber
• mental status
• elderly