Eyes can’t See What the Mind doesn’t know - A case of Pneumothorax Complicating Clavicle Fracture

Abstract

Pneoumothorax is an infrequent but serious complication of clavicular fractures. The importance of its prompt recognition and management cannot be overstated. There have been few cases reported in medical literature (English+ Non-English) but all those patients had respiratory signs or symptoms at presentation. We hereby report a case of isolated clavicular fracture associated with pneumothorax where patient had no respiratory symptoms at the time of presentation and diagnosis was missed. This case highlights that clinical signs may be subtle initially, when attention is focused on obvious bony disruption. We advocate obtaining a routine chest x-ray in all patients with displaced clavicular fracture regardless of respiratory status.