Open AccessPneumoscrotum: Value as an early diagnostic sign of tension pneumothorax in blunt thoracic trauma
Author(s) -
Ammar Humayun,
Louis F. Chai,
Matthew E. Pontell,
Marcin Jankowski
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of critical illness and injury science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.274
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 2231-5004
pISSN - 2229-5151
DOI - 10.4103/ijciis.ijciis_52_18
Subject(s) - medicine , pneumothorax , etiology , tension pneumothorax , blunt trauma , medical diagnosis , presentation (obstetrics) , differential diagnosis , complication , intensive care medicine , blunt , surgery , radiology , pathology
Pneumoscrotum is a rare complication that can result from various etiologies and can be essential in the diagnosis of those causative factors, especially life-threatening ones such as infection or trauma. We present here a case of a patient who presented in posttraumatic cardiac arrest and an extensive, grossly obvious, and rapidly expanding pneumoscrotum. Based on our patient's clinical presentation and a history of a high-speed mechanism with obvious torso trauma, a diagnosis of tension pneumothorax was quickly made resulting in immediate treatment. We review the existing literature and highlight the importance of pneumoscrotum in aiding with differential diagnosis. The presence of pneumoscrotum is often benign; however, in the right clinical setting, it can be an extremely important and useful clinical tool for the early identification and timely treatment of life-threatening diagnoses, such as tension pneumothorax.