Article Text
Abstract
A 41-year-old man was admitted to hospital with 7-day history of fever, cough and having had a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test. The chest radiograph (CXR) showed bilateral peripheral parenchymal infiltrates. He required 4 L/min oxygen via nasal cannula for 72 hours and was discharged after 7 days with appropriate advice. Four weeks from initial hospital admission, he presented with worsening cough, left chest pain and breathlessness. CXR showed left pneumothorax, and CT pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) scan confirmed left pneumothorax with mediastinal shift and a subpleural bulla. Intercostal chest drain was inserted with good resolution of symptoms and lung re-expansion. Follow-up CT scan 2 months later showed complete resolution of the parenchymal abnormalities. Our case demonstrates the development of pneumothorax as a delayed complication in a patient with COVID-19 who did not require ventilatory support. The case also illustrates a favourable outcome, that is, complete resolution of parenchymal destruction due to COVID-19.
- COVID-19
- pneumothorax
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Footnotes
OB and MAS are joint first authors.
Twitter @ShivaBikmalla
Contributors OB was involved in patient care, patient communication and conceived the idea of the manuscript. MAS was on-call respiratory registrar involved in acute management of patient and contributed to the manuscript. SB was the consultant involved in decision-making and contributed to the revision of manuscript and submission.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.