Korean J Anesthesiol.  2008 Jul;55(1):128-134. 10.4097/kjae.2008.55.1.128.

Unilateral pulmonary edema after two-jaw surgery: A case report

• Lim BG
• Lee IO
• Kim HZ
• Kong MH
• Lee MK
• Kim NS
• Lim SH

• KMID: 1782535
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.2008.55.1.128

Abstract

Pulmonary edema is usually bilateral, but can be uncommonly unilateral. Although unilateral pulmonary edema (UPE) can occur owing to various etiologies, it usually occurs at a patient who has an underlying defect or abnormality in the cardiopulmonary system except a case of negative-pressure pulmonary edema. Especially UPE following general anesthesia is a rare complication in a healthy patient. Re-expansion pulmonary edema (REPE) as a cause of UPE mostly occurs when a chronically collapsed lung is rapidly re-expanded after pneumothorax. There are some reports associated with REPE following one-lung ventilation used to facilitate surgery, in which there is no chronically collapsed lung. There are, however, little reported cases of a more acute form of this complication following re-expansion after atelectasis due to only several minutes of an inadvertent main stem bronchial intubation during operation. A report of the occurrence of UPE in a healthy, young male undergoing two-jaw surgery is described.

Keyword

atelectasis; negative-pressure; pulmonary edema; re-expansion; two-jaw surgery; unilateral

MeSH Terms

Anesthesia, General
Edema
Humans
Intubation
Lung
Male
One-Lung Ventilation
Pneumothorax
Pulmonary Atelectasis
Pulmonary Edema