Open AccessCovid-19 pneumonia: Timing of pneumomediastinum and pneumothorax in 11 patients
Author(s) -
Mostafa Al Turk,
Maria Mitri,
Kawthar Jarrah,
Joanna Abi Chebl,
Georges Juvelekian
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
discussion of clinical cases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2375-8449
pISSN - 2375-8473
DOI - 10.5430/dcc.v8n2p1
Subject(s) - pneumomediastinum , medicine , pneumothorax , covid-19 , mechanical ventilation , pneumonia , incidence (geometry) , intensive care medicine , surgery , disease , pathology , physics , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty) , optics
Purpose: As the pandemic continues, many complications, previously recognized as rare, are now being reported as more than frequent complications of Covid-19 pneumonia. Of those, pneumomediastinum and pneumothorax are gaining attention. Their mechanism of occurrence/trigger is not fully understood, but the timing at which they occur is unclear.Methods: This is a case series of 11 Covid-19 patients with pneumomediastinum; retrospectively, we shed light on some of the patients’ characteristics, the role of mechanical ventilation, and the timing of pneumomediastinum after initiation of mechanical ventilation.Results: We found that despite following the lung-protective strategy and despite keeping a plateau pressure at an acceptable range, most of our patients had an acute event around the same timing of mechanical ventilation.Conclusions: The similar timing raises questions about other risk factors that remain unknown. Timing and steroids can contribute to the higher incidence of these complications.