title: Massive subcutaneous emphysema after carbon dioxide mesotherapy.
abstract: The authors report the observation of a 43-year-old woman with severe pain on her right upper abdominal quadrant. Differential diagnoses included acute cholecystitis, spontaneous pneumothorax, perforated appendicitis and a recidive of renal calculus. CT-scan showed a huge subdermal gas bubble along her right flank and anterior abdominal wall up to the submammary fold. Only at this point, the patient admitted to have undergone a carboxytherapy procedure on both thighs one day before onset of pain in a paramedical facility. As some of the injection trajects were still patent on CT-scan, she received prophylactic antibiotic coverage. Though there was a complete resorption of gas after 10 days, dysesthesias and muscle contracture persisted for 3 weeks. To the authors' knowledge this migration and coalescence of injected gas in a single bubble has not been previously reported.
  
  
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authors.forename: Wenceslao M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Calonge
authors.forename: Drahoslava
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lesbros-Pantoflickova
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hodina
authors.forename: Badwi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Elias
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057748:Mesotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013352:Subcutaneous Emphysema / Q000209:etiology*
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide