Summary

Surgical emphysema associated with an acute asthma exacerbation is very rare. This report presents the case of a 19- year-old male patient with a background of asthma who presented with palpable cervical surgical emphysema and CT evidence of mediastinal emphysema. There are only a limited number of case reports associated with surgical emphysema in the absence of pneumothorax in patients with an asthma exacerbation. Evidence with regard to the management of such cases is limited and is largely consensus based. Below we discuss the case in a greater detail.