OKHMATDYT surgeons successfully operated on a 16-year-old boy who had been breathing with one lung all his life
Despite the complicated diagnosis, the boy had no complaints about his health.
In 2017, when Oleksandr was 9 years old, he was hospitalised at our hospital with a right-sided tension pneumothorax.
“This is when the lung “ruptures” and air is pumped into the pleural cavity, causing the lung to shrink. Then the doctors carried out all the necessary examinations and found bullous lung disease. This is a disease associated with lung hypoplasia in which there are emphysematous bullae (blisters) on the surface and air can enter the pleural cavity,” the doctors explain.
The doctors then performed a diagnostic thoracoscopy (to clarify the diagnosis, assess the structures, neoplasms in the pleural space, on the pleura, and peripheral lungs) and a marginal resection of the right lung apex (part of the lung affected by the bullae is cut off).
Afterwards, the boy felt well, and the postoperative period was without complications. For all these 7 years, Oleksandr and his parents did not go to the doctors, nothing bothered him.
In the same year, when he underwent a routine medical examination at the Drohobych TCC, he was referred to our Centre for an inpatient examination, as they saw a scar after surgery. During the diagnosis, our doctors found a pneumothorax. The duration of the disease is unknown, because the guy had no complaints for years.
In fact, Oleksandr had been breathing with one lung for an unknown amount of time!
So, our surgeons immediately operated on the guy – first, they performed a thoracoscopy, and then a thoracotomy. They also performed an atypical resection of the upper lobe of the right lung. That is, part of the affected lung was cut off. Everything went well! The lung has expanded, the guy is feeling well and has been discharged from hospital.
“This is a life-threatening condition. This diagnosis can be fatal. At the same time, the guy did not feel any symptoms or pay attention. When we took the scan and saw the result, we were shocked,” said Oleksandr Kolodiy, a thoracic surgeon at the Centre.
The histological examination showed that it was congenital lobar emphysema, a manifestation of lung hypoplasia, when part of the organ is underdeveloped.
“My son felt fine, didn’t complain about anything, his tests were good. And during the examination, we found out that he had a pneumothorax. To say we were shocked would be an understatement. We are satisfied with the centre and the doctors. We are very grateful to everyone,” said Oleksandr’s mother Ivanna.
In the future, the boy will be under the supervision of our doctors! We wish Oleksandr good health!