• Phani Krishna Machiraju, Neetu Mariam Alex, SafinaazDepartment of Internal Medicine, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, India., and Nikita Mary Baby.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, India.
• SAGE Open Med Case Rep. 2021 Jan 1; 9: 2050313X211011807.

AbstractCoronavirus disease-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome Corona virus-2 is characterised by wide heterogeneity in clinical presentation. The typical radiographic findings in COVID-19 include bilateral ground-glass opacities and/or consolidations predominantly affecting the lower lobes and posterior segments of lungs. Other rare abnormal radiographic findings include pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum and pneumopericardium. There has been an increased incidence of pneumomediastinum, a rare but potentially life-threatening complication during this pandemic. It may be spontaneous or secondary. Pneumomediastinum may be due to barotrauma, cytokine storm induced diffuse alveolar injury or direct viral infection of type I and type II pneumocytes. The presence of pneumomediastinum in COVID-19 patients may indicate extensive alveolar membrane destruction and those patients need close monitoring. There are no consensus guidelines in managing COVID-19 patients with pneumomediastinum. Higher mortality rates (70.58%) are reported in intubated COVID-19 patients with pneumomediastinum. The development of pneumomediastinum in COVID-19 should be considered as a poor prognostic factor.© The Author(s) 2021.

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