Aurea diagnosis of pneumomediastinum. A case report

Abstract

Pericarditis and spontaneous pneumomediastinum are among the pathologies that are in differential diagnoses when a patient describes dorsal irradiated chest pain: if the patient is young, male, and long-limbed, it is necessary to exclude an acute aortic syndrome firstly. We present the case of a young man who arrived at the Emergency Department for chest pain: an echocardiogram performed an immediate diagnosis of pericarditis. However, if the patient had performed a chest X-ray, this would have enabled the observation of pneumomediastinum, allowing a correct diagnosis of pneumomediastinum and treatment. The purpose of this report is to highlight the importance of the diagnostic process.

Keywords

• Spontaneous pneumomediastinum
• Hamman sign
• electrocardiogram
• chest X-ray
• chest computerized tomography.