medical image of the week: bronchial clot removal via cryotherapy
;Ho CV ;Matika R ;Amberger M
journal of photochemistry and photobiology b: biology2016Vol. 13pp. 253-254
419
2016southwestmedical
Abstract
No abstract available. Article truncated at 150 words. A 38-year-old man with a history of non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy presented with decompensated heart failure, acute renal failure, and possible sepsis. He underwent right cardiac catheterization but developed hemoptysis with concern for pulmonary artery rupture. Subsequently, the patient suffered a cardiac arrest but was resuscitated. Emergent bronchoscopy revealed copious amounts of blood and clot that could not be cleared at the time. The patient was then taken to the operating room and placed on A-A ECMO (left ventricle to aorta). The following morning chest x-ray (Figure 1) revealed a completely opacified left lung. Flexible bronchoscopy showed blood clot along the entire left bronchial tree. Initial attempts to remove the clot with suction and endobronchial graspers was unsuccessful. Ultimately, cryotherapy was used to remove the majority of the clot in fragments (Figure 2). The use of cryotherapies and specifically, in this case, a cryoprobe, has been shown to safely and effectively …