Thorax
Pneumothorax
Air around the lungs. Free air in the pleural space. The lungs collapse away from it and the heart loses its contact with the sternum.
Two different patients, so size and positioning differ as well as the finding. Compare what the finding changes, not the dog.
What to look for
- The heart lifted off the sternum on the lateral view, with dark air between them.
- Lung lobes retracted from the chest wall, with no lung markings in the dark space outside them.
- Collapsed lobes look denser than normal lung.
Common causes
Trauma (road accidents, falls), ruptured bullae, penetrating wounds, after thoracocentesis or surgery.
Against the normal
Normally the heart rests on the sternum and lung markings run to the chest wall.
Radiographs: VetXRay, Banzato T., Burti S., Zotti A., Wodzinski M., University of Padua, CC BY 4.0. Converted to web images; findings as annotated by the dataset's radiologist. Dataset · Licence. For learning: not a diagnostic service.