Reconstruction of a large pulmonary artery aneurysm using a vascular prosthesis

Abstract

A pulmonary artery aneurysm is a rare, heterogeneous disease for which there are currently no surgical guidelines. We present the case of a symptomatic patient presenting with a large aneurysm of the distal pulmonary trunk and left pulmonary artery. The aneurysm was resected through a full median sternotomy under cardiopulmonary bypass and aortic cross-clamping. The reconstruction was performed using a straight vascular prosthesis to connect the proximal pulmonary trunk to the left pulmonary artery with the lateral reimplantation of the right pulmonary artery. We find this surgical technique to be simple, effective, and reproducible by colleagues encountering similar cases.