Aortic Dissection in a Patient With Lung Transplantation

ISSN: 2659-6636

Open Respiratory Archives is one of the official publications from the Spanish Respiratory Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) and a companion title to the highly-regarded Archivos de Bronconeumología. Open Respiratory Archives is a new online only, open access, peer reviewed journal that publishes original studies whose content is based upon results dealing with several aspects of respiratory diseases such as epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinics, surgery and basic investigation. Other types of articles such as reviews, editorials, clinical images, scientific letters, and letters to the Editor are also published in the Journal. In addition, the Journal may also publish society documents such as guidelines, position documents, statements, and consensus reports as long as redundancy with previous publications in other society journals does not exist or the degree of similarity is low. Authors of this type of society documents must prove scientific accreditation in the target areas. All the manuscripts received in the Journal are sent to peer-review and are handled by the Editor or an Associate Editor from the team. The official languages of the Journal are English and Spanish. Therefore, manuscripts can be submitted in either language. The areas covered in the Journal are of general interest to the average clinician dealing with respiratory patients, especially pulmonologists and thoracic surgeons. Other types of professionals may also find the contents published in the Journal of interest for their clinical practice: internists, radiologists, immunologists, physiotherapists, rehabilitators, primary care doctors, nurses, and other professionals.

See more Open Access Option

Indexed in:

Scopus, PubMed Central, DOAJ and Embase.

After discharge, the patient started with progressive dyspnea and a chylothorax was diagnosed. A CT scan was performed to determine the cause, and incidentally, it revealed that the suture of the median sternotomy had come loose, which was likely the origin of the chylothorax. During readmission the pleural drainage remained high, so a new chest CT scan was done and we could see that one of the wires from the sternotomy was directed towards the mediastinum (Figs. 1 and 2), next to the ascending aorta and the trunk of the pulmonary artery. A type A aortic dissection (AD) from the aortic root to the aortic arch was diagnosed.

Fig. 1.

Thoracic aorta CT angiography (sagittal MIP reconstruction) showing a type A dissection flap extending from the aortic root to the aortic arch, adjacent to the displaced sternal suture fragment.

(0.1MB).

Fig. 2.

Axial CT scan of the thoracic aorta showing the suture thread directed towards the ascending aorta.

(0.06MB).

This is the first case that describes an AD as a complication after sternal suture wire migration in a lung transplantation patient. Although this complication, the patient evolution after 1 year is satisfactory.

Informed consent

We have obtained the patient's consent to publish this article after providing the necessary information.

This study has not passed the ethics committee because it is not necessary to present this clinical case.

Funding

No funding was needed to create this paper.

Authors’ contributions

All three authors have contributed to the creation of this paper.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Reference

[1]

N. Paul, D. Patsios, A. Walsham, T.-B. Chung, S. Keshavjee, et al.