[A complete ventilation-perfusion mismatch following one-sided lung transplantation and postoperative hemothorax]

Eight days after single-lung transplantation for pulmonary hypertension, a patient presented with a hemothorax on the side of the transplanted lung that required acute thoracotomy. Pulmonary artery pressure had decreased from 78/32/58 mmHg prior to the transplant to 42/18/27 mmHg on the 2nd postoperative day. Therefore, a predominance of perfusion to the transplanted lung was expected. During induction of anesthesia, in spite of ventilation with pure oxygen the patient developed a hypoxic cardiac arrest (paO2 26 mmHg, 40% saturation measured by pulse oximetry) requiring external chest compression. Auscultation and chest movements suggested that the transplanted lung was not ventilated. Because blood flow went mainly to the transplanted lung, ventilation of the native lung was almost totally dead-space ventilation. To enable ventilation of the compressed transplanted lung, the patient was intubated using a single-lumen bronchial blocker tube to block the mainstem bronchus of the native lung. The transplanted lung could then be ventilated. Saturation increased and epinephrine re-established a stable circulation; 2500 ml blood were removed from the pleura without further complications. On the 7th postoperative day the patient was discharged from the intensive care unit without neurological deficits. A perfusion scan 28 days post-transplant revealed 89% of the perfusion going to the transplanted lung. Atelectasis of this lung resulted in a large intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt. Hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction could not ameliorate the shunt because of the high pulmonary vascular resistance of the native lung.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)