CASE REPORT   Free access

Minerva Respiratory Medicine 2021 March;60(1):16-9

DOI: 10.23736/S2784-8477.20.01889-1

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Hemothorax: a rare presentation of COVID-19

Soheil EBRAHIMPOUR ¹, Zeinab MOHSENI AFSHAR ², Mahmoud SADEGHI-HADDAD-ZAVAREH ¹, Masomeh BAYANI ¹, Arefeh BABAZADEH ¹ ✉

¹ Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran; ² Clinical Research Development Center, Imam Reza Hospital, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

On December 31, 2019 novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is the strain of Coronavirus that causes Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It was initially reported from Wuhan, China. This novel virus causes atypical clinical presentations that differs from other viral pneumonias; in fact, some clinical aspects of infection are not cleared today. We present the case of a 69-year-old man with a 2-week history of dyspnea and hemoptysis. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, confirmed by real-time reverse-transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. On day 11 postadmission, the case’s condition improved significantly, with his oxygen saturation rising and lymphopenia subsiding. His dyspnea gradually decreased in severity; furthermore, hemoptysis was controlled after treatment. This case indicates the complexity and variety of pneumonia complications caused by COVID-19 infection. We must have a high clinical suspicion in management of suspected cases especially in patients with novel clinical presentations such as our case in a pandemic. Thus, hemothorax due to viral lung parenchymal destruction can be a complication of COVID-19 pneumonia.

KEY WORDS: COVID-19; Pneumonia; Hemothorax