Spontaneous Pneumothorax

[izMadman]

Since there's no trombone health section on this forum, O decided this is the only place I can open this topic for discussion since it affects my status as a trombone performance major.

This week I started having chest pains and I went to the ER after playing in a concert. I was diagnosed with Spontaneous Pneumothorax which basically means my lung had a leak in it, filling my lung cavity with air, which slowly caused my lung to collapse. I had a surgery to staple the hole together and am currently still recovering in the hospital.

I just wanted to know if anyone else on this forum has experienced something like this and continued to play the trombone regularly (playing 2-4 hours a day) or knows if anything that has.

[AndrewMeronek]

Holy cow - that's dangerous!

I've only ever heard of that happen from getting shot, not from playing an instrument.

[TonyNeal]

That sounds scarey. All the best for a full recovery.

[LeTromboniste]

I have a friend who had the same thing. Started having chest pain after playing a concert, went to have a beer, went home to sleep, still had pain the next day, finally followed his friends' advice to go to the hospital, which probably saved his life. When I met him I think he was coming back from being a year or so away from the instrument because of the recovery. He did get back in shape and last I heard had a decent career as a freelancer.

[timothy42b]

I've heard of it in saxophone players.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3731861/

I've also heard of air getting under the skin.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4318411/

[bigbandbone]

I started having chest pain after a performance also. For me it ended up being blood clots in both lungs. I'm still on blood thinners going on 6 months. But still playing.

[tbonesullivan]

All I can think of is that when making a large inhalation, the ribs spread apart, so there may have been a weakness that split. Either that or it was from the pressure.

Definitely not very common at all. Usually you see these when people break ribs.

[Bach5G]

I thought this was a new Daniel Schnyder work.

[bigbandbone]

When I was in paramedic training I learned that tall, thin, young men had a pre-disposition to spontaneous pneumothorax. Does this physical description fit you?

[slidetrombonefan]

I had a spontaneous pneumothorax when I was 21 and I fit into the tall thin demographic. I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks had surgery, one tube in the chest and another in the back of my shoulder. Suffice it to say I was quite ill. The good news is after a recovery period I was good as new. I wasn't playing the trombone at the time, however, I do remember that deep breathing exercises were part of the recovery. My advice would be to talk to your doctor and follow their directions.

Try not to worry, you will be OK before long.

[PNeiteler]

I had one more than 30 years ago when I was 23. I was told that it statistically happens most often to young tall men. I had a severe concern about trombone playing later on and asked several doctors and certainly got different answers. The bandwidth of different answers started with „absolute tabu, never do it again“ to „if you do it carefully, it’s ok“ to finally „no impact at all“. I considered by myself which doctor had the best experience with this rare sickness and I came to the conclusion it was the doctor with the last answer. He clearly told me that, if it happens again, it certain will not be caused by trombone playing. I certainly restarted to play trombone any I never had any problems later on. Every case might be different and I am not a doctor (at least not in medicine), but I would like to give you the recommendation to hear different doctors and listen to those which have a lot of experience with this rare sickness.

[Matt K]

I had one when I was in my early twenties. Once you get stitched back up, the incision needs time to heal. My doctor indicated there was nothing I needed to change and sometimes it just happens and to just be cognizant of what it felt like incase it happens again so I know to come in. Obviously I'm not a doctor, so if yours says something different I'd defer to their expertise but you shouldn't have any problems. The only part about the whole event I'm left with is a little scar tissue from where they made the incision but that's actually mostly disappeared at this point.

I didn't do much playing for about a week but I went on to do half a masters in trombone performance after that. I also did a few summers of pretty intense playing (>6hrs some days) at a resort and did a job that I was on my feet for many hours a day (deli at the Wal-Mart).

[Nanook]

I'm a retired Respiratory Therapist, and I've seen my fair share of spontaneous pneumos... Since this was posted back in Nov, I'm going to assume you're doing well. Understandably your confidence in your body holding up to the stress you expose it to is rattled...So long as nothing else was found, follow your physicians recommendations and you will be fine...No-one knows why this happens but it does, and I've only seen it in Men...