A rare cause of acute respiratory failure: spontaneous pneumomediastinum due to cocaine use

Mehmet Erdem Memetoğlu,

doi:10.5606/tgkdc.dergisi.2013.4385

Mehmet Erdem Memetoğlu¹, Asım Kalkan², Nuri Tutar³, Serpil Kurtcan⁴, Abdülkadir Gündüz²

¹Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Gümüşhane State Hospital, Gümüşhane, Turkey
²Department of Emergency Medicine, Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Medicine, Trabzon, Turkey
³Department of Chest Diseases, Gümüşhane State Hospital, Gümüşhane, Turkey
⁴Department of Radiology, Gümüşhane State Hospital, Gümüşhane, Turkey

DOI : 10.5606/tgkdc.dergisi.2013.4385

Spontaneous pneumomediastinum is defined as free air in mediastinum without any underlying pulmonary pathology. Although spontaneous pneumomediastinum is a rarely seen clinical entity, it is one of the most common reasons of sudden pleuritic chest pain in healthy young individuals. Cocaine inhalation is also associated with the development of spontaneous pneumomediastinum. Our case having spontaneous pneumomediastinum was referred to our emergency service with the complaint of acute respiratory failure due to cocaine abuse, and the etiology, clinical presentation and the treatment of the disease were evaluated in our study.

Keywords : Acute respiratory failure; cocaine; spontaneous pneumomediastinum

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