This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Prakash Nanjaiah Dharmendra Agrawal Sai U. Prasad Permission Requests Google Scholar Articles by Nanjaiah, P. Articles by Prasad, S. U. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Nanjaiah, P. Articles by Prasad, S. U. Related Collections Cardiac - other Valve disease

Pectoral hematoma mimicking a hemothorax in an octogenarian following aortic valve replacement – a near miss

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, #51, Little France Crescent, Old Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh, EH16 4SA, UK

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 77 23099656; fax: +44 131 242 3239.

E-mail address: ctsace1{at}yahoo.co.uk (P. Nanjaiah).

Open-heart surgery is associated with higher risk of complications in the octogenarians, specifically because of frailty of tissues and delayed healing secondary to various factors. Here, we present a near miss, where an 86-year-old lady underwent tissue aortic valve surgery complicated with formation of a large retro-pectoral hematoma, which on the initial chest X-ray mimicked a left hemothorax. This was successfully explored surgically and drained promptly within 8 h of the primary surgery. This is illustrated with chest radiographs. The case highlights one of the rare complications that we encountered in cardiac surgery of the elderly.

Key Words: Octogenarian; Aortic valve replacement; Retro-pectoral hematoma