A Case of Traumatic Haemopneumothorax Lessons Learnt

A 22 year old male presented with left sided chest pain since one month following a trauma road traffic accident by an auto rickshaw in which he was travelling turning tortle. He also had shortness of breath on moderate activity for a month which had worsened for the last 10 days. Patient also had complaint of cough with haemoptysis for 20days. Clinical examination revealed there were decreased breath sounds over left side of the chest. Chest x-ray and chest CT scan done which showed left sided hydropneumothorax with undisplaced multiple rib fractures on ipsilateral side. Patient underwent left thoracotomy on one lung ventilation which revealed approximately 500 ml of thick pus underneath the ribs along with the collapsed left lung with undisplaced multiple rib fractures. The pus was evacuated and sent for culture and sensitivity and bits of excised pleura were sent for histopathological examination. Culture and sensitivity showed abundant pus cells with no growth and with no microorganisms. Histopathological examination showed resolving pleural lesion of acute and chronic inflammation.