Endobronchial Foreign Bodies Presenting as Intermittent Chest Pain and Productive Cough.

A 51-year-old male presented with intermittent chest pain for one month and productive cough with yellow sputum for seven days. He had a history of chronic kidney disease stage G3, depression, and polysubstance abuse. His chest X-ray revealed mild hazy opacity in the right lower lobe, followed by a chest computed tomography without contrast that indicated multiple nodular opacities in the left mainstem bronchus with clear lungs. The patient underwent flexible bronchoscopy where the left mainstem bronchus was found to be completely occluded by three clear plastic bags, about 1 x 0.5 cm in size containing whitish content consistent with the appearance of crack cocaine. A high index of suspicion is crucial in patients with suspected foreign body aspiration as prompt extraction of foreign bodies may prevent complications.

A Rare Case of Empyema Complicated With Bronchopleural Fistula Secondary to Mucormycosis in a Young Immunocompromised Diabetic Patient With COVID-19.

Mucormycosis is an opportunistic fungal infection caused by the zygomycetes Mucor and Rhizopus. Most documented conditions and risk factors that predispose to mucormycosis are uncontrolled diabetes mellitus (DM), with or without ketoacidosis, hematological malignancies (HM), transplantation, immunosuppression, and chronic sinusitis. Pulmonary empyema secondary to Mucor in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-infected patients is rarely documented. Here we present an extremely rare case of pulmonary empyema secondary to Mucor infection complicated by bronchocutaneous fistula in a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patient in the setting of acute COVID-19 infection.