Bilateral developing reexpansion pulmonary edema treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

A right-side spontaneous pneumohemothorax developed in a 16-year-old boy who was transferred from a local medical department to our emergency department 12 hours later. After an emergency operation to remove the blood clot, right-side reexpansion pulmonary edema developed, with about 3100 mL of foamy and bloody fluid drainage from the right-side endotracheal tube. The patient was sent to the intensive care unit with differential lung ventilation, but developed left-side pulmonary edema resulting in worsening oxygen saturation. Further extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support was used. The patient recovered gradually, and the endobronchial tube was removed 5 days later. Copyright (c) 2010 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.