Barotrauma after liquid nitrogen ingestion: a case report and literature review

ABSTRACT

A 25-year-old man developed a gastric perforation after ingesting a homemade drink containing liquid nitrogen. Surgical repair had to be postponed to seek consultations with experts because the available practitioners in this case, including emergency physicians, surgeons, and anesthesiologists, had little experience and knowledge about the source of the patient’s pneumothorax and subcutaneous emphysema. The patient ultimately underwent exploratory laparotomy with general anesthesia, considering that delaying the operation would lead to a longer duration of bacterial peritonitis and delay the standard treatment of postoperative systemic infectious complications. Our literature review revealed that barotrauma is the unique injury mechanism underlying liquid nitrogen ingestion. Injuries to the airway and esophagus are rare.

KEYWORDS:

• Barotrauma
• liquid nitrogen ingestion
• gastric perforation
• case report

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Prof. Weidong Gao from the Johns Hopkins Hospital for his help in editing this manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The authors have disclosed that they have no significant relationships with or financial interests in any commercial companies related to this study or article. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have received an honorarium from Postgraduate Medicine for their review work, but have no other relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by Ningxia Personnel Training Project (KJT2015017).