Preoperative embolization followed by palliative therapy for patients unable to undergo the complete removal of a chronic expanding hematoma--a case report.

We report herein a case of an 80-year-old female patient who presented with hemosputum and a left chest tumor. Owing to her medical history and imaging findings, we strongly suspected chronic expanding hematoma (CEH). Arteries feeding the mass were embolized prior to surgery to control intraoperative bleeding. We successfully inhibited the massive bleeding from the wall of the tumor and performed surgery rapidly and with minimal blood loss. Thus, preoperative embolization followed by palliative therapy is effective for controlling a CEH both intra- and post-operatively and should be considered an alterative treatment, especially for patients unable to undergo complete removal.