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Pulmonary pseudocyst secondary to blunt or penetrating chest trauma: clinical course and diagnostic issues

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European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

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.

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Conflict of interest

There are no conflicts of interest from H. Ulutas, M. R. Celik, M. Ozgel, O. Soysal and A. Kuzucu.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Turgut Ozal Medical Center, Inonu University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey

    H. Ulutas, M. R. Celik & A. Kuzucu

  2. Department of Thoracic Surgery, State Hospital, Malatya, Turkey

    M. Ozgel

  3. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Bezmialem Vakif University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey

    O. Soysal

Authors
  1. H. Ulutas
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  2. M. R. Celik
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  3. M. Ozgel
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  4. O. Soysal
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  5. A. Kuzucu
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Correspondence to H. Ulutas.

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Ulutas, H., Celik, M.R., Ozgel, M. et al. Pulmonary pseudocyst secondary to blunt or penetrating chest trauma: clinical course and diagnostic issues. Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg 41, 181–188 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00068-014-0427-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00068-014-0427-2

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