Pulmonary Artery Agenesis Presenting as Massive Hemoptysis — A Case Report

Massive hemoptysis is the expectoration of approximately 600 ml of blood in twenty-four hours. Major causes of massive hemoptysis are tuberculosis, bron-chiectasis, pulmonary neoplasm, fungus ball, bronchial adenomas, lung ab-scess, intrabronchial rupture of an aortic aneurysm, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary infarction, and pulmonary trauma. Other, less common causes include Good-pasture’s syndrome, broncholiths, pulmonary varix, A-V malformation, and bleeding disorders. Agenesis of the pulmonary artery usually occurs in associa-tion with congenital cardiac anomalies, and isolated unilateral absence of the pulmonary artery is uncommon. About 10 % of the patients with pulmonary artery agenesis develop inconsequential hemoptysis, but massive hemoptysis is a very rare complication of this anomaly. The following is a case report of a twenty-nine-year-old man with agenesis of the left pulmonary artery, who pre-sented with massive hemoptysis requiring embolization and, eventually, pneu-monectomy