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Subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum following cocaine inhalation: a case report
INTRODUCTION: Subcutaneous emphysema or pneumomediastinum can occur as a complication of illicit drug use although this is rare. When occurring without a pneumothorax and spontaneously, it is usually treated conservatively, but can have serious consequences. CASE PRESENTATION: Here, we present the c...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4568067/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26364299 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13256-015-0683-8 |
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author | Soares, Deanne S. Ferdman, Anna Alli, Rozanna |
author_facet | Soares, Deanne S. Ferdman, Anna Alli, Rozanna |
author_sort | Soares, Deanne S. |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: Subcutaneous emphysema or pneumomediastinum can occur as a complication of illicit drug use although this is rare. When occurring without a pneumothorax and spontaneously, it is usually treated conservatively, but can have serious consequences. CASE PRESENTATION: Here, we present the case of an otherwise healthy 23-year-old Caucasian man who presented to the Emergency Department at our institution and was found to have both subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum as a result of cocaine use. His only presenting symptom was mild chest pain and he had palpable subcutaneous crepitations. He underwent a series of investigations including a chest radiograph and computed tomography as well as a barium fluoroscopy study to rule out secondary pneumomediastinum, which can be fatal. There were no other pulmonary features of illicit drug use, such as granulomas or fibrosis, seen on radiological imaging. He was subsequently managed with a period of observation and supportive care. CONCLUSION: We report a rare case of subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum likely due to the nasal insufflation of cocaine. We discuss the necessary investigations to rule out any serious underlying pathology. These should be considered in patients who present with chest pain after cocaine use. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4568067 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-45680672015-09-14 Subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum following cocaine inhalation: a case report Soares, Deanne S. Ferdman, Anna Alli, Rozanna J Med Case Rep Case Report INTRODUCTION: Subcutaneous emphysema or pneumomediastinum can occur as a complication of illicit drug use although this is rare. When occurring without a pneumothorax and spontaneously, it is usually treated conservatively, but can have serious consequences. CASE PRESENTATION: Here, we present the case of an otherwise healthy 23-year-old Caucasian man who presented to the Emergency Department at our institution and was found to have both subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum as a result of cocaine use. His only presenting symptom was mild chest pain and he had palpable subcutaneous crepitations. He underwent a series of investigations including a chest radiograph and computed tomography as well as a barium fluoroscopy study to rule out secondary pneumomediastinum, which can be fatal. There were no other pulmonary features of illicit drug use, such as granulomas or fibrosis, seen on radiological imaging. He was subsequently managed with a period of observation and supportive care. CONCLUSION: We report a rare case of subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum likely due to the nasal insufflation of cocaine. We discuss the necessary investigations to rule out any serious underlying pathology. These should be considered in patients who present with chest pain after cocaine use. BioMed Central 2015-09-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4568067/ /pubmed/26364299 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13256-015-0683-8 Text en © Soares et al. 2015 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Case Report Soares, Deanne S. Ferdman, Anna Alli, Rozanna Subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum following cocaine inhalation: a case report |
title | Subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum following cocaine inhalation: a case report |
title_full | Subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum following cocaine inhalation: a case report |
title_fullStr | Subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum following cocaine inhalation: a case report |
title_full_unstemmed | Subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum following cocaine inhalation: a case report |
title_short | Subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum following cocaine inhalation: a case report |
title_sort | subcutaneous emphysema and pneumomediastinum following cocaine inhalation: a case report |
topic | Case Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4568067/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26364299 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13256-015-0683-8 |
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