Erschwerte Anlage eines Pulmonaliskatheters durch eine persistierende linke V. cava superior

Abstract

The incidental detection of a persistent left vena cava superior during insertion of a pulmonary artery catheter in a patient with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) prior to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy is reported. A persistent left vena cava superior is the most frequent thoracic malformation and can be associated with other malformations such as congenital heart disease. Therefore, further diagnostic evaluation is needed especially in pulmonary hypertension and ARDS. Anaesthesiologists should be aware of the specific aspects associated with a persistent left vena cava superior.

Persistent left superior vena cava: Review of the literature, clinical implications, and relevance of alterations in thoracic central venous anatomy as pertaining to the general principles of central venous access device placement and venography in cancer patients

“…Those papers in the literature that have specifically addressed the incidental finding of PLSVC at the time of placement of some sort of central venous access device or some sort of central venous monitoring device [38,42,44-123] have generally been directed towards physicians practicing anesthesia [47,48,52,55,58-60,62,64,65,68-71,73,78,85,88,91,92,94,102,117,120,123], critical care [45,46,49-51,53,56,57,72,77,79,83,106,109,110,114,116,119,122], and nephrology [54,66,74,76,80,87,95,96,100,103,104,107,108,113,118]. Despite the fact that a plethora of papers have been published on various aspects of PLSVC and despite there being multiple case reports describing the incidental finding of PLSVC at the time of central venous device placement, there has been very little in the literature specifically directed toward the potential importance of the incidental finding of PLSVC to surgeons, interventional radiologists, and other physicians who are actively involved in central venous access device placement in cancer patients [61,81,82,84,111].…”