CASE REPORT   

Minerva Respiratory Medicine 2022 March;61(1):32-5

DOI: 10.23736/S2784-8477.21.01958-6

Copyright © 2021 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

COVID-19 pneumonia and double whammy: let us stick to the basics

Neeraj SHARMA ¹, Rajat SHUKLA ², Kunal KUMAR ¹ ✉, Rachana WARRIER ³, Sumeet ARORA ⁴, Vivek KUMAR ⁵, Nalin SINGH ⁶, Deepu K. PETER ⁷

¹ Department of Respiratory Medicine, Military Hospital Namkum, Ranchi, India; ² Department of Gastroenterology, Military Hospital Namkum, Ranchi, India; ³ Department of Medicine, Military Hospital Namkum, Ranchi, India; ⁴ Department of Radiology, Military Hospital Namkum, Ranchi, India; ⁵ Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Military Hospital Namkum, Ranchi, India; ⁶ Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Military Hospital Namkum, Ranchi, India; ⁷ Department of Pulmonary Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Army Institute of Cardiothoracic Sciences, Pune, India

Pneumomediastinum and pulmonary embolism are known complications of the COVID-19 disease. Our patient developed spontaneous pneumomediastinum twice during hospital admission along with acute pulmonary embolism. We managed this patient conservatively sticking to the basics of critical care and had a successful outcome. In our extensive literature search, we could not find any other case in which a patient with COVID-19 not on mechanical ventilation developed spontaneous pneumomediastinum twice during the hospital admission which was successfully managed conservatively.

KEY WORDS: COVID-19; Pneumomediastinum, diagnostic; Pulmonary embolism; Critical care