Huge pulmonary arteriovenous fistula: diagnosis and treatment and an unusual complication of embolization.

We report the case of a 42-year-old woman with Rendu-Osler-Weber syndrome (hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia) and a huge pulmonary arteriovenous fistula that involved the entire right middle lobe. She had a history of dyspnea and intermittent atrial flutter for 6 months. A chest radiograph showed a discrete shadowing of the middle part of the right lung. Arteriovenous fistula was suspected based on the echocardiographic finding of immediate bubble detection in the left atrium on introducing echocardiographic contrast medium into the venous system. Atrial shunt was excluded. Angiography revealed a huge pulmonary arteriovenous fistula in the entire middle lobe of the right lung. A trial of interventional embolization was performed, but the size of the fistula made it impossible to achieve complete closure of all segmental fistulas. Furthermore, the patient complained of unusual, severe chest pain after implantation of the first coil, so that the coil had to be removed. Therefore the patient underwent surgical resection of the entire right middle lobe and the upper part of the right lower lobe. Anatomy was clearly delineated and all connecting vessels were suture-closed, but both lungs showed diffuse microscopic superficial pulmonary arteriovenous fistulas, which were too small to be detected by angiography and which were also partly closed. The postoperative course was uneventful: the patient recovered completely, she no longer had shortness of breath, and blood gas analysis showed normal P(aO)(2). It is not clear whether the patient's improved physical performance will last, because the development of diffuse microscopic arteriovenous fistulas bilaterally in the lungs is not predictable. Therefore close follow-up is necessary and in the case of recurrence (ie, enlargement of the existing small fistulas), early interventional embolization should be performed.