Unilateral pulmonary edema seen in patient with massive pleural effusion and heart disease: Case report

Unilateral pulmonary edema is a rare disorder which can be misdiagnosed with other causes of unilaterally pulmonary infiltrates on chest X-ray. Unilateral pulmonary edema may have cardiac origin and non cardiac origin such as mitral valve disease and reexpansion pulmonary edema respectively, while cardiogenic and noncardiogenic pulmonary edema may be difficult to distinguish because of their resembling clinical manifestations. Reexpansion pulmonary edema is an unusual and a potentially significant cardiopulmonary complication occurring after reinflation of the collapsed lung due to pneumothorax, hidrothorax or atelectazy. Unilateral pulmonary edema with mitral valve disease mostly affects the right lung, but cases in the left lung were also reported. We present an interesting case of reexpansion pulmonary edema seen in a 43 year old woman with massive effusion, mitral valve disease and cardiopulmonary bypass history. Copyright © 2012 by Türkiye Klinikleri