Surgical Management of Giant Pulmonary Artery Aneurysm in Patients with
Severe Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Abstract
Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) may develop large
pulmonary artery aneurysms (PAA) which may be complicated by rupture,
dissection or intravascular thrombus formation. These patients were
traditionally considered for heart-lung transplantation but more
recently, there have been reports of successful lung transplantation
with reconstruction of the pulmonary artery (PA). We present two
patients who underwent successful transplantation for PAH with giant
PAA. One patient had end stage PAH and right pulmonary artery atresia
complicated by a giant main PAA. This patient underwent bilateral
sequential lung transplantation with concurrent pulmonary artery
reconstruction. Another patient had end stage PAH with giant PAA on a
background of D-transposition of the great arteries who had a Mustard
repair at 9 months of age. This patient underwent heart-lung
transplantation. Both heart-lung transplantation and lung
transplantation with reconstruction of the pulmonary should be
considered as a treatment option for patients with PAH with PAA.