Pulmonary Artery Bleed from an Eloesser flap

Abstract

An open thoracic window involves the creation of a semi-permanent pleural-cutaneous connection to treat chronic organising empyemas, bronchopleural fistulas and postpneumonectomy empyemas in patients too ill for video-assisted thoracic surgery decortication. An Eloesser flap is a type of open thoracic window. Antibiotics have made the use of Eloesser flaps and other open thoracic windows for treatment of empyemas rare. Consequently, not much is known about the chronic complications of open thoracic windows. However, structural compromise of vasculature secondary to chronic inflammation has been previously proposed as a mechanism for spontaneous pulmonary haematomas related to anatomic deformation. We depict a case of spontaneous pulmonary arterial bleed presenting as chest wall haemorrhage due to a chronic modified Eloesser flap.

Keywords: Adult intensive care; Cardiothoracic surgery; Pleural infection; Respiratory medicine.