Massive pulmonary embolism due to hydatid cysts: A rare postoperative complication of liver echinococcosis

Sotirios Kotoulas; Konstantinos Grapatsas; Vasileios Leivaditis; Ioannis Panagiotou; Emmanouil Spiridakis; Uyen-Thao Le; Thomas Osei-Agyemang; Christophoros Kotoulas

doi:10.1016/j.rmcr.2020.101054

Massive pulmonary embolism due to hydatid cysts: A rare postoperative complication of liver echinococcosis

Respir Med Case Rep. 2020 Apr 20:30:101054. doi: 10.1016/j.rmcr.2020.101054. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Cardiothoracic Surgery Department, "Iaso" General Hospital, Athens, Greece.
² Cardiac Surgery Department, 401 General Military Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece.
³ Department of Thoracic Surgery, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, Germany.
⁴ Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, Westpfalz-Klinikum, Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Abstract

Pulmonary embolism due to hydatid cysts is a very rare pathology. A 55-year-old male was transferred to our hospital due to respiratory failure, as a result of left pulmonary artery obstruction by cystic lesions. His medical history included multiple operations for abdominal echinococcosis. He was urgently operated for the extraction of the proximal hydatid cysts with the use of cardiopulmonary bypass with an excellent outcome and six months later through a right thoracotomy for the distal right pulmonary artery, the cysts were extracted. Meanwhile, he followed additional medication treatment with albendazole, preoperatively as well as postoperatively. Today, 5 years later, he has no evidence of hydatidosis recurrence.

Keywords: Echinococcosis; Hydatid disease; Hydatidosis; Pulmonary embolism; Surgery.

Publication types

Case Reports