The Hippocratic Splash

Authors

• Geetha Girithari Department of Internal Medicine, Centro Hospitalar do Médio Tejo, Abrantes, Portugal
• Inês Coelho dos Santos Department of Internal Medicine, Centro Hospitalar do Médio Tejo, Abrantes, Portugal
• Eva Claro Department of Internal Medicine, Centro Hospitalar do Médio Tejo, Abrantes, Portugal
• Serguey Belykh Department of Emergency Medicine, Centro Hospitalar do Médio Tejo, Abrantes, Portugal
• David Matias Department of Emergency Medicine, Centro Hospitalar do Médio Tejo, Abrantes, Portugal
• Orlando Santos Department of Pneumology, Centro Hospitalar do Médio Tejo, Abrantes, Portugal

geets19@hotmail.com

Keywords

Abstract

Although the current medical literature is limited, hydropneumothorax was described as far back as the 5th century BC. It is characterized by the presence of air and fluid in the pleural cavity and is an infrequent finding. Causes include trauma, iatrogenesis following thoracentesis, the presence of gas-forming organisms, tuberculosis and malignancy. Diagnosis is based on clinical and radiological features. We report a case of hydropneumothorax and present radiological images showing the distinctive features of this entity.