Radiology, Vol 149, 383-387, Copyright © 1983 by Radiological Society of North America
Smoke inhalation: radiologic manifestations
HS Teixidor, E Rubin, GS Novick and DR Alonso
The medical records and radiographs of 62 patients admitted for smoke
inhalation were reviewed to determine the value of the plain chest
radiograph in the early detection of inhalation injury. Pulmonary edema
resulting from the inhalation injury often leads to pulmonary
insufficiency, and its early diagnosis is crucial to the management of
patients with this condition. In addition to the usual presentation of
pulmonary edema, subtle radiographic findings of interstitial edema such as
perivascular fuzziness and peribronchial "cuffing" were observed. Of 56
patients with significant inhalation injury, 35 (62.5%) had radiographic
findings attributed only to smoke inhalation. These abnormalities often had
a characteristic distribution in the lungs, and in the majority of patients
they appeared in the first 24 hours after the injury. The radiologic
diagnosis of inhalation injury may be made at a time when findings of other
diagnostic tests are still equivocal or mildly abnormal, thus alerting the
clinician to impending pulmonary failure.
