Korean J Crit Care Med.  2004 Jun;19(1):52-56.

Subcutaneous Emphysema and Pneumothorax Occurred during Patient Transfer to Intensive Care Unit: A Case Report

• Lee Y
• Kim WY

Abstract

A 48 years old female patient was scheduled for emergency surgery due to bleeding after intracerebral aneurysmal clipping under general anesthesia. Previously checked chest X-ray taken just a few hours before surgery showed no abnormal finding and she didn't show any sign of pneumothorax or hemothorax including dyspnea, tachypnea or cyanosis. Surgery was uneventful. After the completion of surgery, patient was transferred to the neurosurgical intensive care unit with intubation. During transfer, patient showed bucking and signs of subcutaneous emphysema around chest, shoulder and face. Oxygen saturation was low when she admitted to the neurosurgical intensive care unit, so the ventilator care was started. The patient's oxygenation were getting worse progressively, so we checked chest AP several times and one of the chest X-ray taken at that time revealed no vascular and lung marking on the left lung field suggesting pneumothorax. Emergency chest tube drainage was performed. She recovered dramatically and three days later, ches X-ray showed the complete resorption of the pneumothorax.

Keyword

Bucking, Chest tube drainage; Endotracheal tube; Pneumothorax; Subcutaneous emphysema

MeSH Terms

Anesthesia, General
Aneurysm
Chest Tubes
Cyanosis
Drainage
Dyspnea
Emergencies
Female
Hemorrhage
Hemothorax
Humans
Intensive Care Units*
Critical Care*
Intubation
Lung
Middle Aged
Oxygen
Patient Transfer*
Pneumothorax*
Shoulder
Subcutaneous Emphysema*
Tachypnea
Thorax
Ventilators, Mechanical
Oxygen