An 18-year-old man presented with a 2 day history of breathlessness and left-sided chest pain, with no preceding trauma. He had no medical history of note, and had never smoked. He was in hypovolaemic shock, with Hb of 8.1 g/dl, and received fluid resuscitation. Chest x-ray (CXR) revealed left-sided hydropneumothorax, with the effusion of blood-consistency on CT thorax. Tube thoracostomy drained 1.7 litres of blood immediately. He remained haemodynamically stable after 4 units of blood transfusion on the first day with post-transfusion Hb 11 g/dl. Following cardiothoracic surgeon advice, tube was removed on day 5 draining total of 3.5 litres, with good response clinically and radiologically. Patient was well when followed up at 1 week after hospital discharge, with no recurrence and complete re-expansion of left lung on CXR.
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Badéa et al. (2011) studied this question.
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