[A surgically treated case of acute pulmonary embolism owing to deep vein thrombosis of the leg mainly caused by uterine myoma]

Abstract

A 49-year-old woman with deep vein thrombosis of the left leg suddenly complained of slight dyspnea during her hospitalization. Enhanced chest CT and pulmonary arterial DSA revealed pulmonary emboli, while phlebography of the left leg and lower abdominal CT showed a uterine myoma compressing the left external iliac vein, which was regarded as a chief cause of deep vein thrombosis of the left leg. The patient became dyspneic severely with a rapid increase of pulmonary arterial pressure and a decrease of arterial oxygen pressure. Therefore, pulmonary embolectomy and deep vein thrombectomy of the left leg and pelvis was performed using a cardiopulmonary bypass. Hysterectomy was also performed after weaning the bypass. The postoperative course was uneventful without recurrence of pulmonary embolism. This was a very rare case of pulmonary embolism, because, as far as we investigated, no literature has reported deep vein thrombosis of the leg caused by uterine myoma. We emphasize the availability of the enhanced CT for diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.