NEW DELHI: A 55-year-old coronavirus-affected patient who developed pneumothorax a condition of collapsed lung, caused by the presence of air in the chest cavity (thoracic cavity) underwent a keyhole lung surgery, Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS), first in the country claims Max Hospital, Saket.
The patient contracted Covid-19 in September and tested negative in October.
But a few days after his recovery, he started complaining of breathlessness and was rushed to the nearby hospital and diagnosed with pneumothorax in the right lung.
The lung was trapped because of the formation of an inelastic peel over the lung surface, after recovering from the Covid infection.
This peel was not allowing the lungs to expand despite insertion of tubes in his chest cavity.
The patient being extremely weak that it was impossible to go ahead with an open surgery, the hospital claimed.
“This is the first time ever a keyhole surgery of the chest for a collapsed lung was performed in India on a patient affected from Covid-19 infection. The patient developed pneumonia and other Covid-related changes in both the lungs. His right lung collapsed, due to the pneumothorax, and thick pleural rind further compromising his breathing capacity and preventing lung expansion,” explained Dr. Shaiwal Khandelwal, Senior Consultant, Minimally Invasive & Robotic Thoracic Surgery, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket.
“After a long period of conservative treatment and chest drain management for over 3 weeks, it was found that the air leak from the right lung had decreased but part of the lung failed to expand...”
“The difficult decision was taken to refer the case to thoracic surgeon in spite of general weakness and damaged lung due to post Covid sequelae,” said Dr. Ajay Lall, Principal director and Head of unit 1, Pulmonology.