Vanishing lung syndrome vs emphysematous bulla: 2 interesting cases

Vijay S, Sarma L, Deshpande P, Mohit C, Chaithanya I

Pdf Page Numbers :- 174-176

 ¹Department of Pulmonology, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Minister Road, Secunderabad-500003, Telangana, India

²Department of Radiology, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Minister Road, Secunderabad-500003, Telangana, India

*Corresponding author: Dr. Vijay S, Department of Pulmonology, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Minister Road, Secunderabad-500003, Telangana, India. Email: vijayusmle27@gmail.com

Received 05 August 2016; Revised 06 September 2016; Accepted 16 September 2016; Published 29 September 2016

Citation: Vijay S, Sarma L, Deshpande P, Mohit C, Chaithanya I. Vanishing lung syndrome vs emphysematous bulla: 2 interesting cases. J Med Sci Res. 2016; 4(4):174-176. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17727/JMSR.2016/4-038

Copyright: © 2016 Vijay S, et al. Published by KIMS Foundation and Research Center. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Abstract

Vanishing lung syndrome (VLS) is a rare radiological syndrome in which the lungs seem to disappear on chest radiograph. It is a chronic, progressive disorder usually affecting young male smokers and is characterised by giant emphysematous bullae, which commonly develop in the upper lobes. A rare case of a 28-year-old female patient who had no history of smoking, presented with chronic cough, expectoration and weight loss, is described. Radiograph and CT chest revealed findings suggestive of giant bullous disease/vanishing lung syndrome. Bronchoscopy showed copious purulent secretions. In view of recurrent infections and weight loss, the patient referred to surgeon for possible bullectomy, after controlling the infection. Another patient was a middle aged lady who presented with breathlessness was found to have severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). CT evaluation revealed large emphysematous bulla in right lower lobe along with chronic pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE).

Keywords: Vanishing lung syndrome; giant emphysematous bullae; bullectomy; young female