Dohyung Kim, Kwang Ho Choi, Hyungtae Kim, Jae Hong Lee, Younga Kim, Joung-Hee Byun
Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital and Pusan National University School of Medicine.
Republic of Korea
Pediatric Transplantation
Pediatr Transplant 2023;
DOI: 10.1111/petr.14656
Abstract
Background: Lung herniation is a rare complication of heart-lung transplantation that can be fatal owing to vascular compromise and airway obstruction. To date, only five cases of lung herniation related to heart-lung transplantation have been reported in the literature; however, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first worldwide report of heart-lung transplantation-related lung herniation in an infant.
Methods: We describe the case of lung herniation as a rare heart-lung transplantation-related complication in an infant. A 12-month-old female baby developed severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia with severe pulmonary hypertension, and she underwent extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for cardiac collapse and lung support. Then, we performed heart-lung transplantation to manage the irreversible deterioration of her lung function. After the heart-lung transplantation, we found the radiological abnormalities persisted on follow-up chest radiographs until the 13th postoperative day diagnosed as lung herniation of the right lower lobe on chest computed tomography.
Results: After the relocation of the herniated lung, the clinical condition of the patient improved, and the patient is currently growing without any respiratory symptoms.
Conclusions: In this case report, we emphasize that clinical awareness and high suspicion of this rare complication are needed for early diagnosis and proper treatment to prevent post-transplantation morbidity and mortality related to potential ischemic injury.
Category
Lung Transplantation for Pulmonary Vascular Disease
Age Focus: Pediatric Pulmonary Vascular Disease
Fresh or Filed Publication: Filed (PHiled). Greater than 1-2 years since publication
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