1 Jul 2002Case Report
SPONTANEOUS PNEUMOTHORAX FROM PULMONARY METASTASE OF SOFT TISSUES SARCOM
A. Nardone 1A. Bondurri 2L. Paolelli 2C. Marradi 2S. Romagnoli 3L. Nespoli 1P. Salvini 2
Affiliations
Article Info
1 III divisione di Chirurgia Generale; Ospedale S. Gerardo di Monza; Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca
2 Istituto di Chirurgia d’Urgenza; Ospedale Maggiore IRCCS di Milano; Università degli Studi di Milano
3 Cattedra di Anatomia Patologica II; Ospedale S. Paolo di Milano; Università degli Studi di Milano
Ann. Ital. Chir., 2002, 73(4), 433-437;
Published: 1 Jul 2002
Copyright © 2002 Annali Italiani di Chirurgia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Relapsing spontaneous pneumothorax can be the first manifestation of pulmonary metastases of soft tissues sarcomas. Standard imaging tecniques and computed tomography may not be able to detect small malignant cystic lesion or to distinguish between them and benign bollous lesions. We report the case of a 33 year-old male who, in the past, underwent surgical treatment for a synovial sarcoma of the inferior limb. The patient was admitted to our hospital because of right spontaneous pneumothorax; both chest x-ray and CT scan didn’t detect any metastatic pulmonary lesion. A few days after the discharge the patient was readmitted because of relapsed pneumothorax; high-definition CT of the chest revealed a pulmonary cystic lesion that was resected thoracoscopically. Histological examination revealed a pulmonary metastases of synovial sarcoma.
Keywords
- Pneumothorax
- pulmonary metastases
- soft tissue sarcoma
- failure of imaging techniques
- thoracoscopy