Successful management of pulmonary and inferior vena cava tumor embolism from renal cell carcinoma

Abstract

Pulmonary tumor embolism can be a cause of respiratory failure in patients with cancer even though it occurs rarely. We describe a 56-year-old man who underwent a pulmonary tumor embolectomy using cardiopulmonary bypass on beating heart combined with inferior vena cava embolectomy and right radical nephrectomy. Aggressive surgical treatment in this severe case is necessary not only to reduce the fatal outcome of pulmonary embolism in the short run, but also to improve the oncological prognosis in the long term. © The Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 2012.