All issues > Volume 34(6); 1991

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1991;34(6):837-842. Published online June 30, 1991.

A case of pneumoperitoneum secondary to pulmonary airleak and a similar case of abdominal subcutaneous emphysema.

Sei Joong Ko¹, Moon Chul Kim², Jai Eok Kim³

¹Department of Pediatrics, Sowha Children
²Department of Radiology, Sowha Children
³Department of Pediatric Surgery, Sowha Children

Received: January 15, 1991;  Accepted: March 4, 1991.

Abstract

Pneumoperitoneum in association with pulmonry airleak syndrome is rarely encountered in spite of the rather frequent occurence of the pulmonary airleak syndrome in the neonates and the premature babies under ventilator therapy. In most cases of pneiimoperitoneum, the major cause is gastrointes- tinal perforation which evidently requires emergency surgery. Nevertheless, no such aggressive procedure as explolaparotomy is needed in case of pneumoperitoneum secondary to pulmonary airleak without gastrointestinal perforation. Therefore in order to avoid unnecessary operations we have to keep in mind that pneumoperitoneum might have resulted from other much benign causes than gastrointestinal perforation. Recently we experienced a case of pneumoperitoneum secondary to pulmonary airleak in a neonate under ventilator therapy with no evidence of gastrointestinal perforation confirmed by explolapar- otomy and a similar case diagnosed as abdominal subcutaneous emphysema in a premature baby with hyaline membrane disease. A brief review of the related literature is presented.

Keywords :Pneumoperitoneum;Pulmonary Airleak Syndrome