A teenage patient comes to the emergency department with complaints of an inability to breathe and a sharp pain in the left side of his chest. The assessment findings include cyanosis, tachypnea, tracheal deviation to the right, decreased tactile fremitus on the left, hyperresonance on the left, and decreased breath sounds on the left. What do these findings suggest?

A) Bronchitis
B) Pneumothorax
C) Acute pneumonia
D) Asthmatic attack

With a pneumothorax, free air in the pleural space causes partial or complete lung collapse. If the pneumothorax is large, then tachypnea and cyanosis are evident. Unequal chest expansion, decreased or absent tactile fremitus, tracheal deviation to the unaffected side, decreased chest expansion, hyperresonant percussion tones, and decreased or absent breath sounds are found with the presence of pneumothorax. (See Table 18-8 for descriptions of the other conditions.)