what is chest excursion, you ask?

Ok, maybe *you* don't care, but chest excursion popped up on our assessment check off and of course none of us are familiar w/ this term. So, here it is:


Accentuating normal chest excursion: Place your hands on the patient's back with thumbs pointed towards the spine. Remember to first rub your hands together so that they are not too cold prior to touching the patient. Your hands should lift symmetrically outward when the patient takes a deep breath. Processes that lead to asymmetric lung expansion, as might occur when anything fills the pleural space (e.g. air or fluid), may then be detected as the hand on the affected side will move outward to a lesser degree. There has to be a lot of plerual disease before this asymmetry can be identified on exam.

Detecting Chest Excursion


From this awesome site:
http://medicine.ucsd.edu/clinicalmed/lung.htm

Can you tell I am in the office organizing today? I am post crazy!