Occurrence of pneumothorax during noninvasive positive pressure ventilation through a helmet

Michele Carron1, Giuseppe Gagliardi, Flavio Michielan

  • 1Department of Pharmacology and Anesthesiology, Medical School University of Padua, 35121 Padua, Italy. miunipd@yahoo.it

A 79-year-old woman presented with hypoxemic acute respiratory failure secondary to pneumonia and was started on continuous noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV) by helmet. Patient improved over first two days of NPPV, but worsened suddenly on the third day because of development of a pneumothorax. Pneumothorax may have been caused by barotrauma from desynchronization between patient and ventilator.

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