Clinical Approach for the Pneumomediastinum after Blunt Chest Trauma

Abstract

Objective: Pneumomediastinum (PM) can be observed after blunt and penetrating chest trauma. Most of the patients with PM due to trauma can be managed conservatively. This study aimed to evaluate the cases with PM on thorax computed tomography (CT) after blunt chest trauma (BCT). Methods: Medical records of patients with PM due to BCT between January 2000 and December 2014 were reviewed retrospectively. Thorax CT was used to verify pneumomediastinum in all patients. Twenty-four patients which had different causes of PM (penetrating trauma, iatrogenic, spontaneous) were excluded from the study. Data of sixty-nine patients with the diagnosis of PM secondary to BCT and who were observed without any further procedure for the cause of PM, were evaluated retrospectively. Results: There were 59 male and 10 female patients with the mean age of 47.60 ± 17.47 years (range, 16 to 80 years). The most common cause of PM etiology was traffic accident with a rate of 38 (55.06%) patients, followed by fall from height in 25 (36.24%), compression in 3 (4.35%) and drubbing in 3 (4.35%) patients. There was a 12.46 ± 6.42 days (range, 6 to 28 days) mean duration of chest tube drainage which was performed for accompanying pathologies like pneumothorax and hemothorax. No complication was determined for short and long term follow-up of patients when all hospital records were analyzed in terms of complication. Conclusions: PM after BCT may be a marker of esophageal and tracheobronchial injury and invasive procedures like bronchoscopy and endoscopy can be needed for differential diagnosis. We evaluated 69 patients in good general status and no need for intensive care management with PM in this study and observed them without any further procedure. As a result of these findings we concluded that for the PM patients after BCT with uneventful clinical course, conservative treatment without any further procedure is a safe and sufficient method.