Case Report
Pneumomediastinum following Crystal Use:
A Report of Two Cases
Samiramis Pourmotabed
1
and Mohammad Jalili
2
1
Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
2
Department of Emergency Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Correspondence should be addressed to Samiramis Pourmotabed; samiramispm@yahoo.com
Received 15 December 2015; Accepted 16 March 2016
Academic Editor: Aristomenis K. Exadaktylos
Copyright © 2016 S. Pourmotabed and M. Jalili. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Crystal is a synthetic substance with an increasing rate of abuse. It may cause patients to present to the emergency department
because of its acute complications. We depict two cases of pneumomediastinum following inhalation of crystal. Both cases had
used crystal for recreational purposes. In one case, a young man presenting to the ED with the retrosternal chest pain and neck
pain was diagnosed to have pneumomediastinum and pneumopericardium. Te other patient presenting with dyspnea and chest
pain was shown to have collection of air within mediastinum. Both patients underwent a series of diagnostic evaluations and, afer
a course of observation, were discharged without a surgical intervention. Patients with chest pain following inhalation of crystal
may sufer from this complication.
1. Introduction
Crystal methamphetamine (CM) is a colorless, odorless form
of d-methamphetamine, a powerful and highly addictive
synthetic stimulant [1]. Also known as meth, speed, ice, tina,
crystal, tweak, crank, and glass, CM is a methamphetamine
powder that can be white, yellow, orange, pink, or brown
[2]. It is typically smoked using glass pipes [1]. Te abuse of
CM has reached epidemic proportions in the United States,
with widespread health consequences for a wide segment of
the population [2]. Its use is associated with rapid heart rate,
increased blood pressure, damage to the small blood vessels
in the brain, hyperthermia, convulsions, violent behavior,
paranoia, anxiety, confusion, insomnia, and death [1].
Spontaneous pneumopericardium as well as pneumome-
diastinum, sometimes called pericardial-mediastinal emphy-
sema, is a very rare condition resulting from a multitude
of causes: parturition, pulmonary barotrauma, severe cough,
asthma, cocaine inhalation, emesis, athletics [3], chlorine gas
exposure [4], and certain chemicals inhalation [5, 6].
Isolated cases of pneumomediastinum have been re-
ported following the inhalation of marijuana and cocaine
use [7]. Here we describe two cases of spontaneous
pneumomediastinum following inhalational consumption of
crystal.
2. Case Report
2.1. Case One. A 24-year-old man presented to the emer-
gency department (ED) complaining of neck and retrosternal
chest pain. He reported using inhalational crystal 4 hours ago,
when he suddenly felt chest pain and shortness of breath. He
did not report any trauma or prolonged cough. He explained
that this was the fourth time he was using the drug and
he did not have similar problems during previous uses. On
physical examination, the vital signs were normal except for
slight tachypnea (RR = 18). Oxygen saturation at room air was
94%. Tere was severe tenderness on neck palpation without
crepitation. Chest auscultation was unremarkable.
Intravenous line was placed; the patient was put on nasal
oxygen while being monitored for heart rate and oxygen
saturation. Electrocardiogram (ECG) was performed which
was completely normal. Te chest X-ray showed accumu-
lation of air within pericardium with no tracheal deviation
(Figure 1). Esophageal barium swallow and chest and neck
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Case Reports in Emergency Medicine
Volume 2016, Article ID 9730484, 3 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/9730484