Pneumothorax In Covid-19 Pneumonia: A case series

<h3>Background</h3><p dir="ltr">Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It mainly affects the lungs and common symptoms are fever, cough and shortness of breath. Pneumothorax has...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mansoor Hameed (11324145) (author)
Other Authors: Wasim Jamal (14777308) (author), Muhammad Yousaf (754345) (author), Merlin Thomas (6252059) (author), Irfan Ul Haq (9853260) (author), Shakeel Ahmed (3176139) (author), Mushtaq Ahmad (724733) (author), Mohamad Khatib (5240345) (author)
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:<h3>Background</h3><p dir="ltr">Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It mainly affects the lungs and common symptoms are fever, cough and shortness of breath. Pneumothorax has been noted to complicate Covid-19 cases requiring hospital admission, however the exact incidence and risk factors are still unknown</p><h3>Discussion</h3><p dir="ltr">We present a series of 3 cases of primary spontaneous pneumothorax with Covid-19 pneumonia. All cases in our series did not require positive pressure ventilation and none had any pre-existing lung disease. All were never smokers and had favourable outcomes despite having severe Covid-19 with a pneumothorax during the course of the disease. In our literature review we discuss several plausible mechanisms and risk factors resulting in a pneumothorax with Covid-19.</p><h3>Conclusion</h3><p dir="ltr">Our cases are a reminder that an acute deterioration with hypoxia in a Covid-19 patient could indicate a pneumothorax. Pneumothorax is one of the reported complications in Covid-19 and clinician vigilance is required during assessment of patients, as both share the common symptom of breathlessness and therefore can mimic each other.</p><h2>Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Respiratory Medicine Case Reports<br>License: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rmcr.2020.101265" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rmcr.2020.101265</a></p>