Spontaneous postpartum pneumomediastinum: beware of too much diagnostics

In this brief letter we present the case of a 33-year-old primiparous healthy woman in labour who entered our hospital at 38 weeks +6 days of gestational age. After 4 hours and 30 minutes of spontaneous labour, she delivered a healthy newborn. Two hours later she became slightly tachypneic and, in the subsequent 2 hours, developed chest pain at deep inspiration and subcutaneous emphysema that extended from the upper thorax to the neck and to the right side of the face.