Pneumothorax in COVID-19 patients on non-invasive ventilation: a case series

COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the disease mainly affects the lungs. A rare complication reported in these patients has been pneumothorax, whether spontaneous or iatrogenic in ventilated patients. Sudden desaturation or acute deterioration in clinical conditions should immediately raise a suspicion of pneumothorax, and the clinicians must take appropriate measures without any delay. We present a series of 7 cases of COVID-19 admitted to our ICU who developed primary spontaneous pneumothorax. All these patients were on non-invasive ventilation (NIV). They did not have any history of underlying lung disease before the existing ailment, and all of them were non-smokers.