Background: Skin lesions and blistering in the overdose patient, most notably associated with barbiturate overdoses, are commonly referred to as coma blisters, ‘barb blisters’, or ‘barb burns’. We present a patient who was noted to have skin lesions including bullae and blistering following a prolonged coma after quetiapine overdose. Case report: A 27 year old male presented to our institution ...

Excision of giant emphysematous bullae commonly results in a persistent air leak that requires prolonged intercostal drainage and delays recovery. To minimise this we have used Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene) strips to buttress the suture line and secure pneumostasis. During 1976-84 eight bullae were excised in seven patients. One patient had bilateral staged thoracotomies. All chest drains we...

201 July 2013 S PONTANEOUS primary pneumothorax is common in tall, asthenic males between ages 10 and 30 yr.1,2 Initial mode of therapy is nonoperative with a recurrence rate of 50%. Hitherto, recurrent pneumothorax was treated with thoracotomy and wedge resection of pulmonary bullae using a double-lumen endotracheal tube and single lung ventilation. Bullectomy is now routinely performed via vi...

CASE A 68-year-old woman presented with a pruritic, blistering rash. Three months prior, she had developed itchy lesions on her hands and feet, spreading to her chest and abdomen. For the past week, she had developed painful, tense blisters. The patient had seen her primary care doctor at symptom onset and failed to improve with topical clobetasol proprionate and hydroxyzine. She took amlodipin...

Case report: We present a case of TBM seen in a patient with bilateral giant emphysematous bullae and bilateral basal pneumonia. This was diagnosed accidentally by using high resolution computed tomogram of the chest, in a patient who presented with acute shortness of breath secondary to exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that was misdiagnosed because of large bullae a...