• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.296-299
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• 2006

A 35-year-old woman, previously treated for systemic metastases from retroperitoneal yolk sac tumor, presented with progressive painful paraparesis. Preoperative images showed severe cord compression by the metastatic infiltration of the lumbar vertebrae and epidural mass as well as a huge retroperitoneal mass. While performing unremarkable surgery in prone position, the patient abruptly fell into hypoxic insults and circulatory arrest. Intraoperative pulmonary tumor embolism was deemed a cause of death. When planning operative procedure for this dangerous malignancy, scrupulous manipulation is mandated and the possibility of fatal pulmonary tumor embolism should also be addressed and fully discussed preoperatively.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.323-325
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• 2012

Pulmonary tumor embolism can be a cause of respiratory failure in patients with cancer even though it occurs rarely. We describe a 56-year-old man who underwent a pulmonary tumor embolectomy using cardiopulmonary bypass on beating heart combined with inferior vena cava embolectomy and right radical nephrectomy. Aggressive surgical treatment in this severe case is necessary not only to reduce the fatal outcome of pulmonary embolism in the short run, but also to improve the oncological prognosis in the long term.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.72-74
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• 2006

We report a case of fatal aortic tumor embolism presenting as acute paraplegia. A four-year-old girl was referred from a local hospital with sudden paraplegia and a poor medical condition. A neighbor had noticed her fall from a bike, and she could not walk. She had no previous illness. Emergency spine MRI revealed no remarkable findings. During the process of evaluation, her general condition deteriorated progressively. Chest and abdominal CT showed a large mass in the left lung field, and a diagnosis of aortic occlusion was made. An emergency transfemoral embolectomy was attempted. However, the patency of the aorta was not recovered. On pathological examination of tissues taken from the embolectomy, a pleuro-pulmonary blastoma was found. The patient died 22 hours after the onset of her symptoms. We describe a possible mechanism for the tumor embolism. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of aortic occlusion caused by an embolic malignancy, presenting as acute paraplegia.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.72 no.2
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• pp.218-222
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• 2012

Pulmonary artery intimal sarcoma is a rare tumor with no characteristic symptoms. It is frequently misdiagnosed as pulmonary embolism. We report a case of pulmonary artery intimal sarcoma in a 48-year-old man with dyspnea, cough and blood-tinged sputum. He was initially suspected and treated as a pulmonary embolism. Computed tomography of the chest showed filling defects occupying the entire luminal diameter of the right and left pulmonary artery as well as extraluminal extension of the intraluminal mass. Surgical resection of the tumor confirmed pulmonary artery intimal sarcoma. After surgery, he received 8 cycles of combined chemotherapy consisting of doxorubicin and ifosfamide. After 8 cycles, Computed tomography of the chest showed interval regression of the residual tumor. Radiotherapy was done as total 6,000 cGy for 5 weeks, following the 8th chemotherapy. The patient's condition was successfully stabilized with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.63-67
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• 2013

A 76-year-old woman with hypertension was admitted to the hospital with complaints of chest pain and dyspnea. An echocardiogram and pulmonary computed tomography angiography showed right atrial myxoma complicated with pulmonary thromboembolism. An operation to resect the right atrial myxoma and pulmonary embolism was recommended; however, the patient refused and was discharged with anticoagulation therapy. Two years later, she developed dyspnea. Radiological studies and echocardiography showed similar results with the previous findings. The patient underwent mediastinotomy with resection of the right atrial myxoma and pulmonary embolectomy. As there are few reports on right atrial myxoma complicated with pulmonary embolism, we report a successful case of surgical removal of right atrial myxoma and pulmonary embolism.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.742-746
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• 1993

Recent literature reveals that pulmonary embolism secondary of pulmonary tumor embolism are dyspnea, hemoptysis, pulmonary hypertension, and circulatory collapse. We experienced a case of pulmonary embolism secondary to hepatocelluar cancer in 53-year-old man. From 2 months before admission, he began to experience cough and mild shortness of breath. Within a few days these symptoms progressed to near total incapacity. Pulmonary embolism was confirmed by angiography and the diagnosis of hepatocellular cancer was estabillished by abdomen CT and $\alpha$-FP(21,000 ng/ml). There was no evidence of intravascular cogulation elsewhere in deep vein of the extremities or risk factors of deep vein thrombosis. Thus we consider that pulmonary embolism in this patients is related to hepatocellular cancer rather than deep vein thrombosis. Therefore we report the first case which hepatocellular cancer initially presented as pulmonary embolism in Korean literature.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.531-534
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• 2003

A 43-year-old woman who had had an invasive mole 5 years previously required emergent pulmonary embolectomy under cardiopulmonary bypass. Curative resection was impossible because the tumor invaded the right main pulmonary artery and left lower pulmonary artery. The pathologic diagnosis made by the tumor emboli specimens was choriocarcinoma. The patient received post-operative chemotherapy over a 6-month period and had complete remission. Although rare, choriocarcinoma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of fertile women presented with pulmonary embolism.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.232-236
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• 2007

Primary pulmonary artery sarcoma is a rare malignant tumor arising from the pulmonary artery. Diagnosis of primary pulmonary artery sarcoma is quite difficult and the conditon is often misdiagnosed as a more common disease, such as a pulmonary embolism. PET can help in diagnosing a pulmonary artery sarcoma due to the increased uptake of $^{18}F-FDG$ in the area of the tumor. However, the poor anatomic resolution of PET has limited its clinical applications in pulmonary vascular disease. The recently developed PET/CT is the fusion of PET and CT that improves the anatomical resolution of PET. We report a case of a primary pulmonary artery sarcoma mimicking a pulmonary embolism that was diagnosed with PET/CT and confirmed with a surgical resection.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.249-253
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• 2012

We report a case of a 13-year-old girl with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma- leukemia, who presented with a cardiac metastasis in the right ventricle, resulting in a pulmonary embolism. At the time of her leukemia diagnosis, a cardiac mass was incidentally found. The differential diagnosis for this unusual cardiac mass included cardiac tumor, metastasis, vegetation, and thrombus. Empirical treatment was initiated, including anticoagulation and antibiotics. She underwent plasmapheresis and was administered oral prednisolone for her leukemia. Five days later, she experienced sudden hemodynamic collapse and required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation insertion and emergency surgery. These interventions proved futile, and the patient died. Pathology revealed that the cardiac mass comprised an aggregation of small, round, necrotic cells consistent with leukemia. This is the first known case of acute lymphoblastic leukemia presenting as a right ventricular mass, with consequent fatal acute pulmonary embolism. A cardiac mass in a child with acute leukemia merits investigation to rule out every possible etiology, including vegetation, thrombus, and even a mass of leukemic cells, which could result in the fatal complication of pulmonary embolism.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.69 no.4
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• pp.237-242
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• 2010

Pulmonary vascular disease is a category of disorders, including pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary embolism or chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary vasculitis, pulmonary vascular disease secondary to chronic respiratory disease, and pulmonary vascular tumor and malformations. This article reviews the recent advances in this wide spectrum of pulmonary vascular diseases.