A patient was taken to surgery for a left lung resection earlier today.The patient has been in the postoperative care unit for 30 minutes.When you are completing your assessment, you notice that the chest tube has drained 125 cc of red fluid in the past 30 minutes.The nurse contacts the physician and suspects that the patient has developed

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Hemorrhage is an early, life-threatening complication that can occur after a lung resection.It can result from bronchial or intercostal artery bleeding or disruption of a suture or clip around a pulmonary vessel.Excessive chest tube drainage can signal excessive bleeding.During the immediate postoperative period, chest tube drainage should be measured every 15 minutes; this frequency should be decreased as the patient stabilizes.If chest tube loss is greater than 100 mL/hr, fresh blood is noted, or a sudden increase in drainage occurs, hemorrhage should be suspected.

A Patient Was Taken to Surgery for a Left Lung