Case Report: Radiographic Identification of Intrapleural Misplacement of Epidural Catheter in an Intubated Post-Lung Transplant Patient

Abstract

Jiang Wu,1 Philip Chung,1 En-Haw Wu,2 Kai Zhang,1 Ryu Komatsu1 1Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA; 2Department of Radiology, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USACorrespondence: Jiang Wu Email [email protected]: Intrapleural misplacement of epidural catheter is a rare complication of thoracic epidural placement, which can be difficult to detect in intubated patients with unreliable pain reports and hemodynamic response to the test dose. We describe a case of intrapleural misplacement of thoracic epidural in a 50-year-old man status-post bilateral lung transplant and highlight the use of radiographic techniques to identify the misplacement.Keywords: epidural analgesia, lung transplant, postoperative complications

Keywords

• epidural analgesia
• lung transplant
• postoperative complications