Resection of central primary pulmonary artery sarcoma

Abstract

Primary sarcomas of the pulmonary arteries are rare, and the diagnosisis in the majority of the reported cases established postmortem. Surgicalresection of these centrally located tumors has been performed either bypneumonectomy and/or local tumor resection. We report on two patients withsarcomas of the central pulmonary arteries who underwent successfulresection of the tumor and prosthetic replacement of the arteries undercardiopulmonary bypass. One patient required additionalthromboendarterectomy of the right pulmonary artery branches because ofsecondary thrombus formation. As primary pulmonary artery sarcomas arerefractory to both chemotherapy and radiation, surgical resection remainsthe only means of treatment. The prognosis depends entirely uponresectability, which, if necessary, should be performed with the aid ofcardiopulmonary bypass. In this way, lung resection may be avoided.