Background: Two types of Blake chest drains are used by our cardiac surgeons for management of their patients after thoracic surgery. The drain can be longitudinally split by the surgeon resulting in a limb of the drain in each thoracic cavity. A split flat Blake drain has two radiopaque limbs and a split round Blake drain has a radiopaque limb and a less radiopaque limb.
Objective: To describe the radiographic appearance of these drains and promote their accurate radiologic identification and description.
Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective review of the ability of our radiologists to correctly identify the radiographic appearance of the two devices. We identified 48 cases; 30 contained two radiopaque limbs and 18 had a radiopaque and a less radiopaque limb.
Results: In 25 of the 30 (83%) cases the configuration of two radiopaque limbs was correctly identified; however, in 0 of 18 (0%) cases was the configuration of a radiopaque and a less radiopaque limb correctly identified.
Conclusion: By improving awareness of different Blake drain configurations and appearances this study aims to promote proper identification, accurate reporting, and reduced cognitive errors arising from Blake drain misidentification.