Bilateral spontaneous pneumothorax in critically-ill COVID-19 infants: About two cases

• Published in: Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) 2022, Vol.73, p.103172-103172
• Main Authors: Laaribi, Ilyass, Mimouni, Hamza, Bouayed, Zakaria, El Aidouni, Ghizlane, Berrichi, Samia, Bahouh, Choukri, Bkiyar, Houssam, Housni, Brahim
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2049-0801; 2049-0801
• DOI: 10.1016/j.amsu.2021.103172

INTRODUCTIONCOVID-19 is an emerging infection, it is the first large-scale pandemic of the 21st century. Several complications have been described during this infection but spontaneous pneumothorax remains an uncommon complication, even more so in infants. CLINICAL PRESENTATIONWe report two cases of a 9-month-old and 18-month-old males admitted to our department for the management of an acute respiratory distress due to a COVID-19 infection associated to a spontaneous pneumothorax successfully drained.While one patient had a favorable outcome, the other was readmitted to our department for the management of a septic shock secondary to a urinary tract infection with a deadly outcome. DISCUSSIONIn this paragraph we describe known causes behind spontaneous pneumothorax, before detailing the different pathogenesis hypotheses linking pneumothorax to COVID-19, all while comparing data to the literature related to the adult population. CONCLUSIONSpontaneous pneumothorax is a serious complication associated with severe COVID-19 that can occur in infants and must be considered in the event of a respiratory aggravation or a persistent hypoxia.