Hamman's sign Information & Hamman's sign Links at HealthHaven.com

Hamman's sign (rarely, Hammond's sign^[1] or Hammond's crunch^[2] is a crunching, rasping sound, synchronous with the heartbeat,^[3] heard over the precordium in spontaneous mediastinal emphysema.

It is named for Johns Hopkins clinician Louis Hamman, M.D.^[4]

This sound is heard best over the left lateral position. It has been described as a series of precordial crackles that correlate with the heart beat and not the respirations.

[edit] Causes

Hamman's crunch is caused by pneumomediastinum or pneumopericardium, and is associated with tracheobronchial injury^[5] due to trauma, medical procedures (e.g., bronchoscopy) or proximal pulmonary bleb rupture. It is commonly seen in Boerhaave syndrome.

[edit] See also

Hamman's syndrome

[edit] References

^ "The Pericardium - Google Book Search". http://books.google.com/books?id=eq7xVgSHqhMC. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
^ Hadjis T, Palisaitis D, Dontigny L, Allard M (March 1995). "Benign pneumopericardium and tamponade". Can J Cardiol 11 (3): 232–4. PMID 7889442.
^ Hamman sign at Dorland's Medical Dictionary
^ synd/3001 at Who Named It?
^ Chu CP, Chen PP (April 2002). "Tracheobronchial injury secondary to blunt chest trauma: Diagnosis and management". Anaesth Intensive Care 30 (2): 145–52. PMID 12002920.

This medical sign article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[urlThe_Pericardium_-_Google_Book_Search-0] "The Pericardium - Google Book Search". http://books.google.com/books?id=eq7xVgSHqhMC. Retrieved 2008-11-26.

[pmid7889442-1] Hadjis T, Palisaitis D, Dontigny L, Allard M (March 1995). "Benign pneumopericardium and tamponade". Can J Cardiol 11 (3): 232–4. PMID 7889442.

[2] Hamman sign at Dorland's Medical Dictionary

[3] synd/3001 at Who Named It?

[Chu02-4] Chu CP, Chen PP (April 2002). "Tracheobronchial injury secondary to blunt chest trauma: Diagnosis and management". Anaesth Intensive Care 30 (2): 145–52. PMID 12002920.

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