title: Pulmonary pseudocyst secondary to blunt or penetrating chest trauma: clinical course and diagnostic issues.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Traumatic pulmonary pseudocysts (TPPs) are rare complications of chest trauma. The aim of this retrospective study was to report the clinical presentations, diagnosis, complications and treatment for a series of TPPs at a hospital in Turkey.
  
  
  METHODS
  The charts of 996 patients who were admitted for thoracic trauma between 1999 and 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Fifty-two patients had TPPs, and the data collected for these individuals were sex, age, and type of trauma (blunt and/or penetrating). Univariate analysis of categorical data was performed using Pearson's Chi square test. Results for continuous variables were statistically compared using the Mann-Whitney U test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients were 42 males and 10 females aged 12-72 years (mean age 33.1 years). Forty-one had blunt trauma and 11 had penetrating trauma. There was no significant difference between the proportion of blunt trauma patients who developed TPP (41/761, 5.3%) and the proportion of penetrating trauma patients who developed TPP (11/235, 4.6%) (p > 0.05). All 42 patients had pulmonary contusion. Only 10 patients (19.2%) had TPP identified on their chest X-ray, and thoracic computed tomography revealed TPP clearly in all these cases. Forty-two patients (80.7%) were diagnosed with TPP on day 1 post-trauma. The hospital stays ranged from 2 to 35 days for the patients with blunt-trauma, and from 4 to 15 days for those with penetrating trauma (means 8.8 and 8.0 days, respectively; p > 0.05). Only one patient required thoracotomy for a pseudocyst that did not resolve and became progressively enlarged. This TPP was resected at 6 months post-trauma. One patient died on day 9 post-trauma due to multiple organ failure. The other 40 pseudocysts resolved spontaneously within 1-5 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Traumatic pulmonary pseudocysts are pulmonary lesions that occur after either blunt or penetrating trauma and tend to be overlooked. Most of these lesions are self-limiting, benign lesion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Turgut Ozal Medical Center, Inonu University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey, drhakkiulutas@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ulutas
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Celik
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ozgel
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Soysal
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuzucu
mesh_terms: D015998:Abbreviated Injury Scale; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013898:Thoracic Injuries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D014950:Wounds, Penetrating / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology