ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Retained foreign bodies are dreadful events associated with invasive procedures. Their occurrence implicate physical complications as well as serious professional and medico-legal consequences. Cases of retained surgical items, in the pericardial space, following cardiothoracic surgery are rare and their management is delicate as the risks of their removal must be thoroughly weighed against the complications of leaving them inside the chest. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a retained foreign body, discovered in an asymptomatic patient, on a routine medical check-up, 4 years after cardiac surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical and paraclinical manifestations of retained surgical foreign bodies are nonspecific. The progress of cardiac imaging means makes it possible to identify these rare foreign bodies with greater precision, and allows, with extreme caution, to monitor patients who are perfectly asymptomatic and who are reluctant to undergo surgery.
Subject(s)
Cardiac Surgical Procedures , Foreign Bodies , Humans , Foreign Bodies/complications , Foreign Bodies/diagnostic imaging , Foreign Bodies/surgery , Pericardium , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Intercostal lung herniation is defined as a protrusion of the lung parenchyma through a defect in the intercostal muscles between adjacent ribs. The authors report a case of intercostal pulmonary hernia in a 45-year-old male patient, with smoking habit (30 packs-year), presented to the emergency department with dyspnea. He had the history of pulmonary emphysema complicated with a total right pneumothorax in 2015 treated by mini-thoracotomy with bullectomy and pleural abrasion. In 2019, he was admitted to hospital for left chest pain. The computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest revealed a bilateral emphysema with intercostal lung hernia through the fourth intercostal space the patient underwent, a left thoracotomy with repair of the intercostal muscle defect. He was discharged from hospital free of complications.