Giant bullae mimicking tension pneumothorax
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Ahmet Erbey 1 * , Menduh Oruç, Atalay Şahin, Fatih Meteroğlu
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1 Dicle Üniversitesi, Tıp Fakültesi, Göğüs Cerrahisi AD, Diyarbakır, Turkey* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Giant bullae may mimic tension pneumothorax radiologically so that it may expand completely to hemithorax, increase of radiolucency mediastinal shift, flattening of diaphragm and printing on trachea. Sixty one year old male patient with giant bullae misdiagnosed as tension pneumothorax and underwent to tube thoracostomy. The differential diagnosis of giant bullae and tension pneumothorax may be confusing. The therapeutic approaches of these two radiologically similar entities differ significantly. Thus proper physical assessment and radiological examination is crucial in the differential diagnosis and computed tomography examination should be performed before the adjustment of therapy.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Case Report

J Clin Exp Invest, Volume 3, Issue 4, December 2012, 548-551

https://doi.org/10.5799/ahinjs.01.2012.04.0221

Publication date: 13 Dec 2012

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