Primary Coiling of the Left Ventricle in Hypoplastic Left Heart With Ventriculo-Coronary Connections

Interventional closure of a bronchopleural fistula in a 2 year old child with detachable coils

Background

Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) is a severe complication following pneumonia or pulmonary surgery, resulting in persistent air leakage (PAL) and pneumothorax. Surgical options include resection, coverage of the fistula by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), or pleurodesis. Interventional bronchoscopy is preferred in complex cases and involves the use of sclerosants, sealants and occlusive valve devices.

Case presentation

A 2.5-year-old girl was admitted to our hospital with persistent fever, cough and dyspnoea. Clinical and radiological examination revealed right-sided pneumonia and pleural effusion. The child was started on antibiotics, and the effusion was drained by pleural drainage. Following removal of the chest tube, the child developed tension pneumothorax. Despite insertion of a new drain, the air leak persisted. Thoracoscopic debridement with placement of another new drain was performed after 4 weeks, without abolishment of the air leak. Bronchoscopy with bronchography revealed a BPF in right lung segment 3 (right upper-lobe anterior bronchus). We opted for an interventional approach that was performed under general anaesthesia during repeat bronchoscopy. Following bronchographic visualisation of the fistula, a 2.7 French microcatheter was placed in right lung segment 3 (upper lobe), allowing occlusion of the fistula by successive implantation of 4 detachable high-density packing volume coils, which were placed into the fistula. Subsequent bronchography revealed no evidence of residual leakage, and the chest tube was removed 2 days later. The chest X-ray findings normalized, and follow-up over 4 years was uneventful.

Conclusions

Bronchoscopic superselective occlusion of BPF using detachable high-density packing large-volume coils was a successful minimally invasive therapeutic intervention performed with minimal trauma in this child and has not been reported thus far. In our small patient, the short interventional time, localized intervention and minimal damage in the lung seemed superior to the corresponding outcomes of surgical lobectomy or pleurodesis in a young growing lung, enabling normal development of the surrounding tissue. Follow-up over 4 years did not show any side effects and was uneventful, with normal lung-function test results to date.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12887-022-03298-y.

Coil occlusion of a congenital left ventricular aneurysm in a newborn

We report interventional treatment of a congenital left ventricular aneurysm in a neonate. The aneurysm was detected prenatally at 20 weeks of gestation. Postnatally, the aneurysm increased in size during the first few days of life and therefore we opted for interventional closure to abolish the potential risk of rupture. The aneurysm was entered with a 2.7 French microcatheter, and complete occlusion was achieved by successive placement of three detachable large volume coils (Ruby Coil Penumbra^R , Alameda, California). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing interventional occlusion of a congenital ventricular aneurysm in early infancy. Interventional occlusion with detachable large volume coils appears to be an attractive alternative to surgical resection in patients presenting with ventricular outpouchings and narrow base connection to the ventricle.