LUNG NECROSIS AFTER PARAFFIN ASPIRATION

Authors

  • Ana Rita Costa Cardiothoracic Surgery Department, Santa Marta Hospital, CHULC, Lisbon, Portugal
  • João Silva Cardiothoracic Surgery Department, Santa Marta Hospital, CHULC, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Rita Barata Cardiothoracic Surgery Department, Santa Marta Hospital, CHULC, Lisbon, Portugal
  • João Eurico Reis Cardiothoracic Surgery Department, Santa Marta Hospital, CHULC, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Paulo Calvinho Cardiothoracic Surgery Department, Santa Marta Hospital, CHULC, Lisbon, Portugal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48729/pjctvs.63

Abstract

Background: Fire breather´s lung is a rare condition that occurs after hydrocarbon aspiration. Case reports published experienced a good clinical outcome with conservative treatment. To our knowledge, there are no reported cases treated with pulmonary resection.

Case presentation: We report the case of a 35-year-old female trapeze artist, who suffered an accidental ingestion/ aspiration of liquid paraffin. Persistent fever and elevated inflammatory markers without clinical improvement with antibiotics and bronchoscopy was seen. Computed tomography scan showing middle lobe necrosis and abscess motivated a middle lobectomy for infection control. Postoperative recovery was uneventful.

Conclusion: There are some cases described in the literature, normally with a favourable evolution with conservative treatment. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that, in patients where serious complications have arisen, despite medical therapy, surgery may have an important role, and resection of the necrotic lung may prevent its potential life-threatening consequences.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Bandla HP, Davis SH, Hopkins NE. Lipoid pneumonia: a silent complication of mineral oil aspiration. Pediatrics. 1999 Feb;103(2):E19.

Betancourt SL, Martinez-Jimenez S, Rossi SE, Truong MT, Carrilo J, Erasmus JJ. Lipoid Pneumonia: Spectrum of Clinical and Radiologic Manifestations. American Journal of Roentgenology. 2010;194: 103-109

Lifshitz M, Sofer S, Gorodischer R. Hydrocarbon poisoning in children: a 5-year retrospective study. Wilderness Environ Med 2003; 14: 78- 82.

Weinberg and Z. G. Fridlender. Exogenous lipoid pneumonia caused by paraffin in an amateur fire breather. Occupational Medicine 2010;60:234–235

Lizarzábal Suárez PC, Núñez Savall E, Carrión Valero F. Neumonía lipoidea por aspiración accidental de parafina en un «comedor de fuego». Arch Bronconeumol. 2015;51:530–531.

Franquet T, Gomez-Santos D, Gimenez A, Torrubia S, Monill JM. Fire Eater´s pneumonia: Radiografic and CT findings. Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography 24(3);448-450.

Burkhardt O, Merker HJ, Shakibaei M, Lode H, Electron microscopic findings in BAL of Fire-eater after petroleum aspiration. Chest 2003; 124:398-400

Downloads

Published

30-06-2020

How to Cite

1.
Costa AR, Silva J, Barata R, Reis JE, Calvinho P. LUNG NECROSIS AFTER PARAFFIN ASPIRATION. Rev Port Cir Cardiotorac Vasc [Internet]. 2020 Jun. 30 [cited 2024 Nov. 21];27(2):131-3. Available from: https://pjctvs.com/index.php/journal/article/view/63

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 2 (2020): April - June

Section

Clinical Cases

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Portuguese Journal of Cardiac Thoracic and Vascular Surgery

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Most read articles by the same author(s)

<< < 1 2