Reexpansion pulmonary edema occurring after thoracoscopic drainage of a pleural effusion

Video assisted thoracoscopic drainage and tale pleurodesis was used to treat a recurrent pleural effusion in a 60 year-old woman undergoing major gynecologic surgery. She developed reexpansion pulmonary edema immediately following surgery. Several important risk factors that were present in this patient are discussed. In addition to almost, complete collapse of the underlying lung for several weeks, thoracoscopy resulted in manipulations and rapid re-inflation of the underlying lung, which further increased the risk to the patient.