Rapid-growth pneumatocele mimics massive pneumothorax in a HIV-positive patient
- Min-Shiau Hsieh1,2,
- Chun-Ku Chen3,
- Wing-Wai Wong4,5,
- Chien-Sheng Huang1,6
- 1Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- 2Department of Surgery, National Yang-Ming University Hospital, Yilan, Taiwan
- 3Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- 4AIDS Prevention and Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
- 5Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- 6National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
- Correspondence to Dr Chien-Sheng Huang, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No 201 Section 2 Shih-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan; huangcs{at}vghtpe.gov.tw
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Contributors M-SH was involved in collecting clinical information and drafting the manuscript. C-CK analysed the radiological studies. WW-W carried out the patient care clinically and helped to draft the manuscript. C-SH provided the operative images and wrote the manuscript.
- Received 3 April 2012
- Accepted 11 June 2012
- Published Online First 26 June 2012
Learning points
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A fast-growing giant pneumatocele can develop in the HIV-positive patient with suspected PCP infection complicated with pneumothorax and compromised pulmonary reserve. CT scans might be helpful for differential diagnosis.
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Surgical intervention by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for unroofing the pneumatocele and pleurodesis might be an effective treatment to …
