Faculty, Staff and Student Publications
Publication Date
6-1-2022
Journal
The American Journal of the Medical Sciences
Abstract
COVID- 19 has become a major pandemic affecting more than 11 million people worldwide. Common radiological manifestations of COVID-19 include peripheral based ground-glass or consolidative opacities; however, pneumothorax and pneumo-mediastinum are very rare manifestations; even more so within patients not on mechanical ventilation. We present a case series of 5 patients with COVID-19 who either presented with or developed spontaneous pneumothorax or pneumo-mediastinum within the course of hospitalization. With the exception of one patient, all other patients developed pneumothorax as a late manifestation in their illness; more than 10 days after initial symptom onset in COVID-19. From within this case series, all patients who developed spontaneous pneumothorax or pneumo-mediastinum during hospitalization subsequently succumbed to the illness. Spontaneous pneumothorax or pneumo-mediastinum may be an important late manifestation in COVID-19; even in spontaneously breathing patients. This may be related to development of cystic changes within the lung parenchyma. Although the clinical relevance of this finding is unknown; in our series, it portended a worse prognosis in the majority of patients.
Keywords
COVID-19, Humans, Mediastinal Emphysema, Pandemics, Pneumothorax, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, SARS- COV-2, Pneumothorax
DOI
10.1016/j.amjms.2020.11.024
PMID
35369983
PMCID
PMC7688415
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
11-26-2020
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Published Open-Access
yes
Included in
COVID-19 Commons, Epidemiology Commons, Internal Medicine Commons, Medical Sciences Commons