Acute mediastinitis

This article has been translated from WikiSkripta; the formatting needs to be checked.

Anatomy of the mediastine

Acute mediastinal inflammation is a serious disease with high lethality (approximately 50%).

• Usually as a result of oesophagus perforation (endoscopic procedures, tumours), rarely complications of pneumonia/inflammation of the mediastinal nodes (or lung abscess, empyema) or even as a complication of maxillofacial inflammation.

The clinical picture

• fever with retrosternal pain,
• in esophageal perforation dysphagia + subcutaneous emphysema,
• X-ray : dilation of mediastinum, ev. with pleural effusion + mediastinal emphysema.

Therapy

• ATB iv, mediastinal drainage.

References

Related Articles

• Mediastinum
• Chronic mediastinitis

References

• DÍTĚ, Petr. Vnitřní lékařství. 2nd edition. Prague : Galén, 2007. ISBN 978-80-7262-496-6.