Introduction:

Spontaneous pneumomediastinum or Hamman syndrome is a rare and infrequent complication. It is defined as the presence of air or gas within the mediastinum without an identified cause.

Objective:

To report a clinical case of spontaneous pneumomediastinum in a patient with COVID-2019, a disease with a rare complication.

Clinical case report:

We report the case of an 86-year-old patient with a clinical condicion of fever of 38o C and respiratory symptoms (cough with whitish secretions, dyspnea on moderate exertion). He underwent a polymerase chain reaction test for coronavirus disease 2019, which resulted positive. On the fourth day of his hospitalization, he his clinical condition worsened, including cough and progressive dyspnea accompanied by oxygen saturation less than 91%. The presence of pneumomediastinum was revealed by high-resolution imaging studies (computed tomography angiography of the chest).

Discussion:

The 2019 coronavirus disease pandemic has given rise to a global public health emergency, which requires health personnel to be familiar with symptoms, imaging results, and complications of this disease, such as pneumomediastinum found in this case.

Conclution:

Spontaneous pneumomediastinum is a rare complication that occurs in the inflammatory phase of this disease.

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