Pseudo-Pneumothorax Due to Skin Folds in a Patient With Pneumonia

Pseudo-pneumothorax refers to several conditions that can mimic pneumothorax on chest radiography, leading to diagnostic uncertainty and unnecessary interventions. These include skin folds, bed sheet folds, clothes, scapular borders, pleural cysts, and elevated hemidiaphragm. We report a case of a 6...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2023-04, Vol.15 (4), p.e37564
Main Authors: Jalamneh, Basil, Taher, Ameed, Nassar, Ismael, Musleh, Tariq, Shamieh, Bashar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cardiac/Thoracic/Vascular Surgery
Case reports
Cysts
Emergency medical care
General Surgery
Hospitals
Lung diseases
Pneumonia
Pneumothorax
Radiology
Ultrasonic imaging
Vital signs
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Summary:Pseudo-pneumothorax refers to several conditions that can mimic pneumothorax on chest radiography, leading to diagnostic uncertainty and unnecessary interventions. These include skin folds, bed sheet folds, clothes, scapular borders, pleural cysts, and elevated hemidiaphragm. We report a case of a 64-year-old patient with pneumonia whose chest radiograph revealed, in addition to the typical pneumonia findings, what appeared similar to bilateral pleural lines raising the suspicion of bilateral pneumothorax, but this finding was not supported clinically. Careful reexamination and further imaging ruled out the possibility of pneumothorax and concluded that this was the result of artifacts produced by skin folds. The patient was admitted and received intravenous antibiotics and was discharged three days later in stable condition. Our case highlights the importance of careful examination of imaging findings before unnecessarily proceeding to tube thoracostomy, especially when the clinical suspicion of pneumothorax is low.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.37564