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Pneumoencephalus after one missed step

International Journal of Emergency Medicine volume 1, page 145 (2008)Cite this article

Case

An 82-year-old female sustained a ground level fall after missing a single step while Christmas shopping. She arrived at the emergency department with stable vital signs, but with massive facial bleeding threatening her airway. We proceeded with emergent nasal packing and endotracheal intubation. CT of head and face revealed massive pneumoencephalus (Fig. 1) secondary to complete disruption of the facial complex from the cranium, consistent with LeFort I, II and III fractures (Fig. 2). The patient was taken to surgery and subsequently extubated on day 2 without neurological deficit.

Fig. 1
figure 1

CT of head and face revealed massive pneumoencephalus

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Fig. 2
figure 2

Complete disruption of the facial complex from the cranium, consistent with LeFort I, II and III fractures

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA

    Daniel Cabrera & Rachel Gilmore

  2. Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA

    David L. Klocke

  3. 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN, 55901, USA

    Daniel Cabrera

Authors
  1. Daniel Cabrera
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  2. Rachel Gilmore
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  3. David L. Klocke
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Correspondence to Daniel Cabrera.

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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0 ), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Cabrera, D., Gilmore, R. & Klocke, D.L. Pneumoencephalus after one missed step. Int J Emerg Med 1, 145 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12245-008-0025-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12245-008-0025-3

Keywords

International Journal of Emergency Medicine

ISSN: 1865-1380

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