A complication of high flow nasal cannula oxygenation therapy: Pneumothorax

Abstract

High flow nasal cannula oxygenation (HFNC) therapy is a safe and comfortable treat-ment method that has been widely used in both pediatric and adult patients in recent years. A two-month-old male patient admitted to our emergency department was hospita-lized with a pre-diagnosis of acute bronchiolitis, and HFNC treatment was started due to respiratory distress. Pneumothorax was observed in the chest radiography of the patient who developed tachypnea and dyspnea during follow-up. Underwater drainage was per-formed by inserting a thorax catheter. The thoracic catheter was removed due to clinical and radiological improvement on the fifth day of the treatment. With this case report; We wanted to emphasize that although it is a rare complication during HFNC treatment, pneumothorax may develop and the patient should be followed closely.