Evaluation of Patients Who Developed Pneumothorax Due to COVID-19

Background: Although SARS-CoV-2 infection often affects the lungs, pneumothorax is extremely rare. The aim of this study was to analyze the characteristics of patients who were hospitalized due to COVID-19 and who developed pneumothorax (PNX) and to analyze their risk factors. Methods: Patients who developed PNX, among the patients who were followed up in the hospital due to COVID-19 between 1 April 2020 and 1 April 2022, were included in the study. The mean and standard deviation values of the descriptive statistics were obtained from patient data. The entire application was carried out using IBM SPSS 26 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). p values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: We observed that advanced age and male gender increase the risk of COVID-19 patientsdeveloping PNX, but smoking, sepsis, and being followed-up with mechanical ventilation do not increase this risk. In addition, we observed that the presence of an additional disease increases the mortality rate. Conclusion: We show that advanced age and male gender increase the risk for PNX, which is a rare complication of COVID-19, and that comorbidity is associated with mortality in these patients.

Automated summary

This study analyzed the characteristics and risk factors of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who developed pneumothorax. It found that advanced age and male gender increase the risk of pneumothorax, while smoking, sepsis, and mechanical ventilation do not increase this risk. Additionally, the presence of comorbidity is associated with higher mortality rates in these patients.