Hemothorax as a complication after anterior cervical discectomy: case report
B Sanjay Harhangi1, Tomas Menovsky, Hans A L Wurzer
1Department of Neurosurgery, Westeinde Hospital, The Hague, The Netherlands. b.s.harhangi@erasmusmc.nl
Objective And Importance:
Anterior cervical discectomy is one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures of the cervical spine.
Clinical Presentation:
We describe a patient with a postoperative hemothorax as a complication after an anterior cervical discectomy.
Intervention:
The patient was intubated, and reoperation and bronchoscopy were performed.
Conclusion:
To the best of our knowledge, such a complication has not been described before in the English-language literature. We conclude that hemothorax is a rare, although serious, complication after anterior cervical discectomy and should be included in the differential diagnosis for patients with respiratory failure after an anterior cervical discectomy.
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