A Foreign Body Found in the Pulmonary Artery of a Traffic Accident Victim with a Chest Injury and Near-amputation of the Upper Extremity: A case report / 대한흉부외과학회지

ABSTRACT

We present a case with a foreign body in the left pulmonary artery, found in a traffic accident victim. A 52- year-old woman sitting in the passenger side of a car had massive bleeding and near complete amputation of her right forearm in addition to multiple rib fractures and a hemopneumothorax. At arrival to the emergency room, the patient had signs of shock; she was anemic, drowsy and hypotensive. A large volume of blood and crystalloid fluids were administered via the left subclavian vein with a rapid infusion device (Level 1(R)). As the lung contusion improved, a foreign body was noticed in the left lung field on plain x-rays. Pulmonary angiography was performed and revealed a 15 cm foreign body in the left basal segment of the common pulmonary artery. The foreign body was successfully retrieved using vascular forceps via the percutaneous femoral vein approach.