Pulmonary vein stump thrombosis is a rare but severe complication following lobectomy that can lead to acute systemic arterial occlusion.
Heparin bridging may not prevent pulmonary vein stump embolism after right upper lobectomy; leaves open prophylaxis for non-left resections.
Our medical team observed a right upper lobe nodule in a 78-year-old man who was treated with warfarin for chronic atrial fibrillation. The nodule was diagnosed as adenocarcinoma via intraoperative frozen sectioning. We performed video-assisted right upper lobectomy and mediastinal lymph node dissection. Warfarin was discontinued in the perioperative period. However, unfractionated heparin was administered. Nonetheless, the patient developed acute arterial occlusion of the lower extremities on post-operative day 7. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography showed thrombosis in the right upper lobe pulmonary vein stump, which was considered to be the cause of the acute arterial occlusion. The patient underwent emergency thrombectomy following which his symptoms immediately improved. Herein, we report a rare case of pulmonary vein thrombosis occurring after a right upper lobectomy. Our findings may facilitate effective clinical decision-making.
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Ohashi et al. (2022) studied this question.
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