Heimlich valve
A one-way latex valve housed in a plastic casing that connects to a chest drainage tube.
How it is used
Allows pleural air or fluid to exit while preventing its return into the pleural cavity, enabling ambulatory drainage of a pneumothorax.
Clinical tip
The characteristic flutter sound confirms the valve is working; its absence may indicate resolution of the pneumothorax or tube obstruction.
Sources
This entry is part of the Instriq catalog, researched and written per specialty from real web research -- never generated or invented without verification -- and reviewed skeptically and independently before publication. How this catalog is written.
History
Added to the catalog on 2026-10-05.
Dates derived from the project's public version-control history on GitHub, not a live collaborative edit log.