Pulmonary Embolism of the Small Branches of the Pulmonary Artery as a Result of Combat Trauma: Review of the Literature and Analysis of a Clinical Case

Abstract

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is recognized by WHO as one of the most common cardiovascular diseases. Even in peacetime, PE is the third leading cause of sudden death after coronary heart disease and stroke. Today, as a result of the war, there have been significant corrections in the understanding of etiology, pathogenesis, features of the clinical course and treatment of internal pathology in the wounded persons. It was established that an important feature of modern combat activity is a constant increase in the frequency of multiple and combined wounds, while combat injuries of the chest make up to 15% of the structure of sanitary losses, and closed chest injuries under combat conditions can make up to 5%. Diseases of the cardiovascular and respiratory system are observed both early and late after closed chest trauma. The early ones are represented by functional disorders of the blood circulation and breathing system and are the consequences of damage to the chest organs, and the late ones occur in the case of joining a wound infection and are characterized by inflammatory processes in the lungs, pleura, heart and blood vessels, include pneumonia, pleurisy, acute purulent-destructive diseases lungs, thromboembolic complications. The article analyzes the course and possibilities of diagnosis and treatment of PE using the example of a wounded military man. A clinical case is presented which describes the successful diagnosis and treatment of a wounded person with PE of small branches of the pulmonary artery with the development of infarct-pneumonia S8, S9 of the right lung, nosocomial pneumonia in the right lung, which was complicated by the destruction of lung tissue, with the formation of an abscess-hematoma, acute interstitial nephritis, complicated by acute kidney damage of the III degree. This therapeutic pathology arose after a gunshot shrapnel penetrating wound of the chest on the right side with damage to the right subclavian vein, migration and embolization by a metal fragment of the right pulmonary artery, a gunshot shrapnel blind wound of the upper third of the right forearm with a gunshot fracture of the ulna and the presence of a foreign body (debris) in the muscle what tissues of the forearm. During the operation a complication arose in the form of migration of a foreign body from the branches of the right pulmonary artery to the branches of the left pulmonary artery. The result of the patient’s treatment was positive dynamics of the pathological process. The serviceman was discharged from the hospital in satisfactory condition and returned to the Armed Forces of Ukraine after a medical treatment. PE of small branches of the pulmonary artery is a severe complication after gunshot shrapnel injury to the chest organs, which can occur without concomitant deep vein thrombosis of the lower extremities, most likely as a result of the development of shock and the migration of fragments along the branches of the pulmonary artery. Complex treatment with the use of surgical methods and adequate antibacterial therapy is the main method of treatment of chronic destruction of lung tissue with abscessation. Each patient needs a complex of imaging methods for dynamic examination and monitoring of the state of other organs and systems, in particular, kidney function.