Monday, March 8, 2010

Deep End

Since I'm on radiology, this week will be x-ray week.

This patient was brought into the emergency department due to trauma.

Challenge: What's the diagnosis? What kind of trauma did the patient sustain?

Image shown under Fair Use.

3 comments:

sid said...

Gunshot wound to the chest leading to Haemomediastinum?

tree said...

pneumothorax secondary to a bullet to the chest

Craig said...

yes, ptx 2/2 bullet
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Deep End

This is the deep sulcus sign of a left sided pneumothorax. The costophrenic angle on the left side projects well below the costophrenic angle on the right side. This is due to accumulation of pleural gas in a subpulmonic location, outlining the anterior pleural reflection, the costophrenic sulcus, and the anterolateral border of the mediastinum. Also note that there is a bullet overlying the heart.

Sources: UpToDate; LearningRadiology.