The Usefulness of Wi-fi Based Digital Chest Drainage System in the Post-Operative care of Pneumothorax

홍윤주¹, 구관우², 최진호², 조현민³, 황정주³

을지병원 흉부외과¹, 을지대학교 의과대학 을지대학교병원 흉부외과², 부산대학교 의과대학 부산대학교병원 흉부외과, 외상외과³

Background : Chest drainage systems are usually composed of chest tube and under water-seal bottle. But thisconventional system may restrict patients doing exercise and giveclinicians obscure dataabout when to remove tubes because there is no objective indicator. Recently developed digital chest drainage systems may facilitate interpretation of the grade of air leak and make it easy for clinicians to decide when to remove chest tubes. In addition, with combination of wireless internet devices, monitoring and managing of drainage system distant from the patient is possible.

Methods : Sixty patients of primary pneumothorax were included in a prospective randomized study and divided into two groups. Group I (study) consisted of digital chest drainage system while in group II (control), conventional underwater-sealed chest bottle system was used. Data was collected from January, 2012 to September, 2013 in Eulji University Hospital, Daejeon, Korea.


Results : There was no difference in age, sex, smoking history and postoperative pain between two groups. But the average length of drainage was 2.2 days in group I and 3.1 days in group II(p<0. 006).And more, about 90% of the patientsin group I weresatisfied with using new devicefor convenience .

Conclusion : Digital system was beneficial on reducing the length of tube drainage by real time monitoring. It also had advantage in portability, loudness and gave more satisfaction than conventional system. Moreover, internet based digital drainage system will be a good method in thoracic telemedicine area in the near future

책임저자: 황정주

부산대학교 의과대학 부산대학교병원 흉부외과, 외상외과

연락처 : 황정주, Tel: 051-240-7369 , E-mail : drthora@gmail.com