[Lung contusion after jumping from a 10 meter tower in a swimming pool].

BACKGROUND

Lung contusions often occur in the context of polytrauma, but much less frequently in sports injuries.

CASE DESCRIPTION

We report on a 22-year-old patient who presented to our emergency room. On the same day he jumped from a 10 meter tower in a swimming pool and hit the surface of the water with his thorax and abdomen. He complained of pain in the right chest and hemoptysis immediately after the jump.The examination findings remained without further abnormalities.In the chest x-ray no abnormalities were found.The CT thorax with contrast medium revealed homogeneous ground-glass opacities in the middle lobe and less in the ventrobasal upper lobe on the right, consistent with the pulmonary contusion with parenchymal bleeding. In addition, there was a minimal pneumothorax border on the paracardial right side.Bronchoscopy performed on the same day showed evidence of blood in the middle lobe bronchus.The hemoptysis stopped spontaneously. On the 3rd day of the hospital stay, the patient was discharged with stable vital parameters and asymptomatic.

CONCLUSION

Hemoptysis immediately after a sports chest injury may occur as a result of pulmonary contusion. In contrast to conventional chest x-rays, computed tomography is of great importance in the diagnosis of pulmonary contusion.