Pneumopericardium: A rare complication of laparoscopic varicocoele ligation

Abstract

Although symptomatic pneumopericardium post-laparoscopic varicocoele ligation procedure is rare, numerous cases have been reported and identified pneumopericardium as a complication of laparoscopic surgery. Pneumopericardium after other urological procedures has been previously reported when diagnosed incidentally on chest X-ray but there are no reports of symptomatic presentation. We hereby present the first symptomatic pneumopericardium case after a routine procedure for the ligation of varicocoele.

Symptomatic pneumopericardium – A rare complication following retroperitoneal laparoscopic nephrectomy: A case report

“…In large retrospective reviews of urological laparoscopy, pneumopericardium rarely occurred, moreover, all of the cases were incidentally detected without any symptoms [ 3 , 7 ]. To our knowledge, several case studies reported chest pain and dyspnea in post-laparoscopic procedures because of pneumopericardium, as what arose in our presenting case [ 8 , 9 ]. Post-operation chest pain and dyspnea are uncommon but emergent that should initially be evaluated by diagnostic algorithm to rule out life-threatening conditions such as acute myocardial infarction and pulmonary embolism [ 10 ].…”