Pulmonary cavitation – an unexpected finding in late stage COVID-19 pneumonia (case report)

The typical CT features of COVID-19 pneumonia include multifocal and bilateral ground-glass opacities with or without consolidation, found in both lungs, predominantly at peripheral, and posterior regions, bronchovascular thickening, crazy pavement appearance (ground-glass opacities with superimposed interlobular septal thickening). Atypical imagistic findings such as lung cavitation were rarely reported. In this report we describe the case of a 42 years old, healthy man with severe COVID-19 pneumonia who developed two pulmonary cavities during recovery. The pulmonary cavitations formed in the aria of the lung where patchy air space opacification was seen in early stages. There were no signs of invasive fungal or bacterial infection and the complementary investigations have ruled out other possible etiology for lung cavitation. Although the pathophysiological mechanism involved in the origin of the pulmonary cavities is not fully known, it could be closely related to diffuse alveolar damage in severe COVID-19 pneumonia.