BMJ case reports
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We describe an elderly female patient with known polymyositis who presented with new onset temporal headache that was diagnosed as giant cell arteritis but subsequently had a typical clinical course of cluster headache. This case illustrates the potential for diagnostic confusion between giant cell arteritis (GCA) and cluster headache (CH) and the need to consider CH as a potential differential diagnosis in those newly presenting with headaches, even in the elderly, and relapsing headaches in subjects with a diagnosis of GCA. Importantly, this needs to include female patients, a group historically thought to be much less likely to develop CH.
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Case Reports
Perforation of a sigmoid diverticulum presenting with a pneumoscrotum and surgical emphysema.
A case of a sigmoid perforation presenting as a pneumoscrotum with progressive surgical emphysema is reported. An elderly patient presented with a grossly swollen scrotum and a distended abdomen. A computed tomography (CT) scan demonstrated sigmoid diverticulitis in conjunction with air and a subdiaphragmatic collection. ⋯ Sadly the patient died on the operating table. Intra-abdominal pathology manifesting as a pneumoscrotum and surgical emphysema is a rare yet reported phenomenon most often associated with colonoscopy, but also described with appendicitis and perforated colonic carcinoma. In previous reports, in contrast to this patient, the individual's scrotum was inflamed but not erythematous and tender, and the rapid progression of surgical emphysema is not reported.