• Spine · Nov 2004

    Case Reports

    Traumatic epidural emphysema.

    • Brian K P Goh, Kok-Kit Ng, and Michael N Y Hoe.
    • Department of General Surgery, Changi General Hospital, Singapore. bsgkp@hotmail.com
    • Spine. 2004 Nov 15; 29 (22): E528-30.

    Study DesignThis is a case report.ObjectiveA rare case of epidural emphysema secondary to traumatic pneumomediastinum in the absence of pneumothorax is reported.Summary Of Background DataEpidural air secondary to traumatic pneumomediastinum in the absence of pneumothorax has only been reported previously by Willing. Other causes of traumatic epidural emphysema include pneumothorax, pelvic fracture, dural enteric fistula, and herniation of a spinal disc.MethodsA young man who sustained blunt cervical and chest trauma after a basketball game accident was found to have pneumomediastinum and surgical emphysema on a chest radiograph and underwent computed tomography (CT).ResultsThe CT scan demonstrated surgical emphysema, pneumomediastinum, and epidural emphysema with no pneumothorax. The patient was managed conservatively, and the epidural emphysema and pneumomediastinum resolved spontaneously.ConclusionEpidural emphysema secondary to traumatic pneumomediastinum is benign and self-limiting. However, the life-threatening causes should be considered and ruled out.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…