Late complications. Late respiratory failure

Late and progressive respiratory failure after pneumonectomy may result from a variety of causes. Non-specific causes include restrictive failure by loss of alveolar volume; pulmonary hypertension; initial disease recurrence (e.g. bronchogenic cancer, bronchiectasis); side-effects of radio- and chemotherapy; and benign or malignant pleural or pericardial effusions. Acute or subacute conditions are congestive or ischemic heart failure, pulmonary embolism, and pneumonia. Two causes are specific, benign, and curable: the postpnemonectomy syndrome and the platypneaorthodeoxia syndrome. The latter is related to a right-to-left interatrial shunt through a reopened patent foramen ovale. The hemodynamic and anatomical mechanisms are analyzed through an exhaustive review of the literature, together with the particular clinical presentation and the easy diagnosis if suspected.