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Case Reports
. 2020 May;14(7):e01227.
doi: 10.1213/XAA.0000000000001227.

Respiratory Distress in Postanesthesia Care Unit: First Presentation of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in a 17-Year-Old Girl: A Case Report

Ramin Rahmanzade  1   2 , Reza Rahmanzadeh  2 , Seyed MohammadReza Hashemian  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Respiratory Distress in Postanesthesia Care Unit: First Presentation of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in a 17-Year-Old Girl: A Case Report

Ramin Rahmanzade et al. A A Pract. 2020 May.

Abstract

A 17-year-old healthy girl underwent an uneventful esthetic septorhinoplasty. She was easily extubated and transferred to the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) with oxygen saturation (SpO2) of 96%. About 30 minutes after arrival in the PACU, she developed dyspnea with SpO2 of 84% and promptly received oxygen with bilevel positive airway pressure in conjunction with low-dose corticosteroid. The subsequent chest computed tomography (CT) revealed bilateral patchy infiltrates similar to the radiologic findings of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Finally, a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of a pharyngeal specimen confirmed the diagnosis of COVID-19.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure.
Figure.
Axial view of a lung CT 4 h after extubation. It revealed bilateral multilobar patchy opacities (arrows) predominantly in posterior and peripheral regions (A and B). CT indicates computed tomography.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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