A rare cause of pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema: Tooth extraction

Hakan Işık

doi:10.5606/tgkdc.dergisi.2020.17807

Hakan Işık¹, Ersin Sapmaz¹, Mahmut Özbey², Hasan Çaylak¹, Merve Şengül İnan¹

¹Department of Thoracic Surgery, Gülhane Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
²Department of Thoracic Surgery, Erol Olcok Training and Research Hospital, Çorum, Turkey

DOI : 10.5606/tgkdc.dergisi.2020.17807

Pneumomediastinum is defined as the presence of free air between mediastinal structures. Although most of the cases occur spontaneously or due to traumatic reasons, they may rarely be observed after dental procedures. It is considered that the use of high speed air turbin drill during dental procedures might cause mediastinal emphysema. High-pressured air dissects the soft tissues starting from the impaired dento-alveolar membrane and reaches the mediastinum. Contaminated fluid and air can reach the mediastinum after the deterioration of the intraoral barrier and may result in highly mortal descending mediastinitis. In this article, we present a 53-year-old female patient of pneumomediastinum developing after tooth extraction using high-speed air turbine.

Keywords : Pneumomediastinum, subcutaneous emphysema, tooth extraction

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