An interesting case of intraoperative and post-operative hypoxemia

Abstract

A 56 year old female underwent open cholecystectomy followed by exploratory laparotomy the following day. She was not known to have any airway disease. She developed intra and postoperative hypoxemia during and after the second surgery, the first surgery being uneventful. Intra operative findings included decreased air entry over the entire left lung field but post operative there was no air entry on right side. Postoperative Chest X ray and fiber optic Bronchoscopy was performed. Chest radiography revealed right lung collapse, while Bronchoscopy revealed a thick mucus plug causing complete occlusion of the right main bronchus and near total occlusion of the left main bronchus. A Bronchoscopic lavage corrected the problem.

Keywords

• Hypoxemia
• Bronchoscopy
• Atelectasis