Abstract

GUTIERREZ-OSPINA, Alejandro; CAREAGA-REYNA, Guillermo; LEZAMA-URTECHO, Carlos Alberto  and  QUISPE-FERNANDEZ, Luis Alberto. Tension pneumopericardium after blunt chest trauma by Macklin effect. Case report. Neumol. cir. torax [online]. 2017, vol.76, n.3, pp.267-270. ISSN 0028-3746.

Pneumopericardium is the presence of air inside the pericardial cavity, a rare entity which has multifactorial etiology. It is diagnosed through imaging studies. It’s usually a self-limited disease but potentially mortal if it evolves to a cardiac tamponade condition. Even though there are only a few reported cases in scientific literature and only one of which are post traumatic; we believe that there’s an underdiagnosis of the Macklin effect a cause of pneumopericardium without pneumomediastinum, and that it could also be present in spontaneous cases. We describe a posttraumatic tension pneumopericardium case as a result of the Macklin effect, treated successfully with thoracoscopy.

Keywords : Macklin effect; pneumopericardium; cardiac taponade; thoracoscopy; blunt chest trauma..

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