subquantanious emphysema?

Question

After a recent surgery, my doctor told me this occured during surgery, what does that mean? She said a pocket of gas got between some level of skin and traveled up through my chest. How serious was this?

Answer 1

Subcutaneous emphysema can happen during laparoscopic surgery. The surgeons pump carbon dioxide gas into an area of the body (such as the abdomen or the chest) so that they can see to do the operation, and sometimes that gas can travel into other areas, such as under the skin. Subcutaneous emphysema is not usually dangerous in such a case, as long as there is not a huge amount of it. The gas dissolves fairly quickly and that is the end of it.

Answer 2

I think you are talking about SUBCUTANEOUS (ie. under the skin) emphysema.

This occurs when air escapes from the respiratory system and tracks up into the muscles and under the skin.

By itself it is not of much significance, but it means something has let the air in there. This could be important. In the case of your surgery, if this is a known complication then there is nothing to worry about.

The air under the skin causes a peculiar crackling sound and sensation if you press on it.

I have seen this in:

rib fractures with lung injury -> pneumothorax and subcutaneous emphysema

facial fractures where there is a fractured wall of a facial sinus causing subcutaneous emphysema in a fellow's eyelid!

after cardiac surgery where opening the chest causes pneumothorax and some of the air gets into the muscles and subcutaneous tissues

Answer 3

It's usually not life threatening, if that's what you're asking. Still don't know how that could have happened. Did you have thoracic surgery? We can figure it out better by knowing what kind of surgery you did have.

Did you have head or neck surgery? If so, probably either esophageal or tracheal origin. I'd look around for some links for you to read up on.

If your trachea was perforated during intubation, it may present a more serious problem, but I doubt you'd be here asking us this question if that were the case... you'd probably be having it fixed.