Permeability pulmonary edema following lung resection.

The etiology of edema associated with pulmonary resection was investigated in five patients during the immediate postoperative period. Three patients received pneumonectomy while two patients had one lobe resected. All patients suffered from severe respiratory distress and had x-ray evidence of diffuse interstitial pulmonary edema within 12 hours of surgery. Hemodynamic data were obtained with radial and pulmonary artery catheters. Edema fluid was obtained along with blood samples for simultaneous determination of protein and albumin content. All patients studied had normal or high cardiac output, normal cardiac filling pressures, and edema fluid protein to serum protein ratio of 0.6 or greater suggestive of permeability changes contributing to edema fluid accumulation. Calculated shunt fraction exceeded 25 percent in all patients. Pulmonary edema has been noted in patients following pulmonary resection in the early postoperative period. In patients reviewed here, two factors appeared to be significant. First is an increase in pulmonary capillary pressure associated with passage of a normal to high cardiac output in a reduced volume pulmonary vascular bed. The second factor, as demonstrated by protein content in the edema fluid, is injury to the alveolar capillary membrane.