Acute Limb Ischaemia Following Elective Left Upper Lobectomy for Early NSCLC: A Rare but Serious Complication Arising from the Pulmonary Vein Stump

Acute Limb Ischaemia Following Elective Left Upper Lobectomy for Early NSCLC: A Rare but Serious Complication Arising from the Pulmonary Vein Stump

Author Info

Corresponding Author
James Elliott
Principal House Officer/Unaccredited Registrar in Vascular Surgery, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia

A B S T R A C T

Patients undergoing Left Upper Lobectomy (LUL) appear to be at risk of a unique post-operative complication that is not well-documented: Pulmonary Vein (PV) stump thrombosis +/- systemic arterial embolisation [1-3]. We describe the details of a rare case from our institution, present a review of this subject from the limited literature available, and suggest potential strategies to anticipate, detect and manage this entity. A 70 year old female patient underwent left upper lobectomy and mediastinal lymph node sampling via repeat left thoracotomy. The procedure was unremarkable apart from some adhesions. She progressed well post-operatively on the ward. On post-operative day 2 the patient developed sudden-onset left leg pain and paraesthesia and CT-Angiography confirmed the diagnosis of left common femoral artery embolus and left superior PV stump thrombosis. The patient returned to theatre for femoral embolectomy, continued systemic anticoagulation, and made an excellent recovery thereafter. The aetiology of this complication has been documented in some case reports, but it is not explored further in trials or thoracic surgery texts [2-3]. One cohort study involving CT-angiography after lobectomy surgeries found that left upper lobectomy was unique as a risk factor for PV stump thrombosis1. It may be related to the relatively longer LSPV stump and stasis of blood in the stump [4].

Article Info

Article Type
Case Report & Review of Literature
Publication history
Received: Tue 07, Jan 2020
Accepted: Wed 22, Jan 2020
Published: Fri 07, Feb 2020
Copyright
© 2023 James Elliott. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.CRSS.2020.01.02