Case Report

Spontaneous pneumothorax in Wegener's granulomatosis: a case report

Authors

Ilhan Sezer¹, Hilal Kocabas¹, Meltem Alkan Melikoglu¹, Bayram Serdar Budak¹, Irem Hicran Ozbudak² and Bulent Butun¹

1. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey
2. Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey

Received:

1 May 2007

Accepted:

7 September 2007

Published online:

27 December 2007

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Abstract

Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) is a multiorgan system disease of unknown etiology characterized by granulomatous inflammation, tissue necrosis, and variable degrees of vasculitis in small- and medium-sized blood vessels. In patients with WG, the musculoskeletal system can be involved before other typical symptoms of the disease. Also in WG, pneumothorax can develop as a rare complication. In this paper, we report a case with WG who had early articular involvement in the absence of classic features of illness and had pneumothorax which resulted from the rupture of the sub-pleural nodule. The aim of this work is to increase the awareness of early articular involvement in WG and the pneumothorax possibility especially in cases with cavitated nodules closure to pleura. This case emphasizes that early diagnosis and treatment is very important in avoiding further complications.

Key words

Wegener's granulomatosis - Pneumothorax - Musculoskeletal involvement