We Have Been Seeing a Lot of Collapsed Lungs With COVID-19
It seems that COVID, or the immune response to it, can cause lung destruction
It happens all of a sudden. Without warning, the patient’s skin becomes puffy. Sometimes, it is in the neck. Other times, it is on the chest. I have even seen it happen with a patient’s face. When you feel the skin, it feels like “rice crispies.”
The medical term for this is subcutaneous emphysema. It occurs when air escapes from the lungs and enters the soft tissues. Sometimes, air will track in the middle of the chest causing a condition called pneumomediastinum. The worst-case scenario is the outright collapse of one of the lungs, called a pneumothorax.
We have been seeing it a lot more with our COVID patients.
How does air escape from the lungs into the skin?
Normally, air should not be in the skin at all. Normally, all of the air in the lungs should stay in the lungs. Sometimes, however, the lung ruptures and air escapes from the lung into the chest cavity, causing the lung to collapse and cause shortness of breath and low oxygen levels.
This can commonly happen with penetrating trauma to the chest, such as a stab or gunshot wound. Other times, the lungs…
