Lung injury caused by greenstick fracture of the scapular body in a 6-year-old boy

Complications caused by a scapular body fracture are rare, and usually occur due to concomitant injuries or nonunion. Intrathoracic displacement of a fractured scapula has only been described in two reports involving adolescents. In this report, we describe a 6-year-old boy with a parenchymal lung i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Skeletal radiology 2016-04, Vol.45 (4), p.555-558
Main Authors: Shin, Sung Jin, Wang, Sung Il, Kim, Jung Ryul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Case Report
Child
Fractures
Fractures, Bone - complications
Fractures, Bone - diagnostic imaging
Fractures, Bone - surgery
Humans
Imaging
Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Lung diseases
Lung Injury - diagnostic imaging
Lung Injury - etiology
Lung Injury - surgery
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Nuclear Medicine
Orthopedics
Pathology
Radiology
Scapula - diagnostic imaging
Scapula - injuries
Scapula - surgery
Teenagers
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
Wounds, Penetrating - diagnostic imaging
Wounds, Penetrating - etiology
Wounds, Penetrating - surgery
Youth
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Complications caused by a scapular body fracture are rare, and usually occur due to concomitant injuries or nonunion. Intrathoracic displacement of a fractured scapula has only been described in two reports involving adolescents. In this report, we describe a 6-year-old boy with a parenchymal lung injury caused by a greenstick fracture fragment of the scapular body after being struck by a dump truck. Three-dimensional CT (3D CT) scan showed an incomplete fractured fragment impaling the left lung parenchyma resulting in pneumothorax, parenchymal contusion, and pneumatocele in the left upper lobe. The patient underwent emergency open reduction of the scapular fracture and chest tube insertion. A rare subtype of scapular fracture with resultant fragment rotation and intrathoracic penetration can injure the lung parenchyma. To the best of our knowledge, lung injury caused by incomplete fracture of the scapula in patients younger than 10 years has not been reported previously.
ISSN:0364-2348
1432-2161
DOI:10.1007/s00256-015-2262-x