title: Posttraumatic pneumopericardium: a sign of severe injury or radiodiagnostic rarity?
abstract: We present three cases of pneumopericardium following blunt chest trauma injury. All three patients were victims of road traffic accidents. All had multiple associated injuries and pneumopericardium was found as the additional finding. Pneumopericardium was treated conservatively with thoracic drains placement and patients observation. Transesophageal echocardiography was used as a method of choice for exclusion of cardiac air tamponade. All three patients survived.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. vlonsky@seznam.cz
authors.forename: Vladimír
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lonský
authors.forename: Jirí
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mand'ák
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harrer
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tuna
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dvorák
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dedek
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dominik
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011026:Pneumopericardium / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology*; D011859:Radiography; D013898:Thoracic Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging