Arterial oxygen desaturation during one-lung ventilation in a patient with segmental pulmonary infarction

A left thoracotomy for decortication of an infected haemothorax was performed on a 52-year-old man with a partially infarcted left lower lobe that occurred as a rare complication of a pulmonary venous embolus. Before the completion of surgery, after an uncomplicated 40 minutes of one-lung ventilation, the left lung was temporarily re-expanded to assess air leak. On the resumption of one-lung ventilation the SpO2 fell rapidly to 85%, despite apnoeic oxygenation of the non-ventilated lung. In the absence of evidence of double-lumen tube displacement, intra-pulmonary shunting as a consequence of impaired hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction in the newly expanded markedly pathological lung is considered the most likely mechanism.