When Things Go Wrong in Thoracic Surgery: A Middle Lobectomy With Bleeding That Required Cardiopulmonary Bypass to Address
This is a video showing a procedure performed by open thoracotomy with a head camera that records audio. The patient had a large middle lobe tumor and had an ICD, an impaired left ventricular function, and previous coronary artery bypass grafting. Unfortunately, the operating surgeon got into a bleeding scenario that required the whole team to work together to get out of this problem.
This is a 34 minute video where the viewer can hear exactly how it went. The team has taken away many learning tips from this case, as this was the first time that the operating surgeon had to use cardiopulmonary bypass to rescue a bleeding situation in thoracic surgery. With good control of the bleeding and good planning, the team and patient were fortunate to have a good outcome.
The patient did very well and was safely discharged without any prolonged ventilation or air-leak issues.
Additional Resource
Surman TL, Worthington MG, Nadal JM. Cardiopulmonary bypass in non-cardiac surgery. Heart Lung Circ. 2019 Jun;28(6):959-969.