There are risks inherent to playing any sport, but some sports injuries are more serious than others.
One type of injury that can be serious and even fatal is a pneumothorax. A pneumothorax is the medical term for a collapsed lung.
Is it common to get a pneumothorax while playing sports?
This type of injury isn't extremely common in the world of sports. When it happens, it's more likely to occur in certain sports such as track and field, diving, scuba diving or those that involve throwing. It's less common for a pneumothorax to happen spontaneously while playing a collision sport such as football.
Blunt trauma where a football player slams into another player doesn't frequently cause a lung to collapse, but it can happen. If a player fractures a rib, the broken rib can puncture one of the two membranes that surround the lung. This allows air to enter the space between the membranes and put pressure on the lung. This causes it to partially or completely deflate.
The case of Tony Romo
The Dallas Cowboys' Tony Romo reportedly suffered a fractured rib that caused a pneumothorax Sept. 18 playing against the San Francisco 49ers. Despite his injury, he managed to return to the game and led the Cowboys to victory. A stunning performance, if you consider the discomfort he must have been experiencing as he made his way back to the field.
What does it feel like to have a pneumothorax?
When a person has a pneumothorax, he or she usually has sharp chest pains on the side of the lung collapse, and he or she may cough and have shortness of breath. The symptoms can be mild or quite severe, depending upon how collapsed the lung is. If the collapse is large, a person may have a very fast pulse rate and go into shock. A large, untreated pneumothorax can be fatal.
Returning to play football with a collapsed lung can cause the lung to deflate further and lead to shock or even death, depending on the size of the pneumothorax. Romo must have felt a great deal of pain when he returned to the field. Breathing hard as he raced across the field could have easily triggered a complete collapse of the lung even if the initial pneumothorax was small. In addition, he was suffering from the pain of a fractured rib, which can be excruciating. His will to play and win must have triumphed over the pain as he led his team to victory.
What's the prognosis?
A pneumothorax is usually diagnosed by a chest X-ray. If a pneumothorax is small and if the symptoms are mild and the person is otherwise healthy, no treatment may be necessary other than rest. A large pneumothorax requires hospitalization and placement of a chest tube into the space between the lungs and the ribs. The tube removes the air that has collected around the lung that keeps the lung from expanding. Once the air is released, the deflated lung can expand and heal. In rare cases, surgery may be necessary.
The bottom line
Pneumothorax or a collapsed lung is not a common football injury, but it can happen when two players collide at a speed high enough to break a rib. This is what happened in Romo's case, but he still led the Cowboys to a stunning victory.
Footnote: I'm a family physician with 21 years experience in the medical field.
References:
Phys. Sportsmed. 2000. Aug: 28(8) 23-32.
MDAdvice.com. "Pneumothorax"
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