Eur J Cardiothorac Surg . Spontaneous pneumothorax and subpleural bullae in a patient with COVID-19: a 92-day observation

[tetano]

Eur J Cardiothorac Surg


. 2020 Sep 20;ezaa305.
doi: 10.1093/ejcts/ezaa305. Online ahead of print.
Spontaneous pneumothorax and subpleural bullae in a patient with COVID-19: a 92-day observation


Qianqian Fan[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Feng Pan[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Lian Yang[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP]



Affiliations

• PMID: 32951046
• DOI: 10.1093/ejcts/ezaa305

Abstract

This report describes a patient with COVID-19 who developed spontaneous pneumothorax and subpleural bullae during the course of the infection. Consecutive chest computed tomography images indicated that COVID-19-associated pneumonia had damaged the subpleural alveoli and distal bronchus. Coughing might have induced a sudden increase in intra-alveolar pressure, leading to the rupture of the subpleural alveoli and distal bronchus and resulting in spontaneous pneumothorax and subpleural bullae. At the 92-day follow-up, the pneumothorax and subpleural bullae had completely resolved, which indicated that these complications had self-limiting features.

Keywords: Computed tomography; Coronavirus disease-2019; Pneumonia; Spontaneous pneumothorax.