A 39-year-old woman, pregnant at the 17th week, was operated on as a wake-up call to avoid risks to pregnancy following a very serious lung and chest infection.
To avoid consequences for the fetus or abortion, the infection was treated minimally. The operation, at the Molinette hospital in Turin, was successful.
The 39-year-old went to the emergency room of the Mauritian hospital in Turin, then was transferred to Gynecology where she received the diagnosis of pleural empyema: an infected collection formed between the lung and the chest wall, very resistant to normal antibiotic therapies. The only possibility of cure was surgery, but with the risk of endangering the unborn child. Thanks to modern surgical and anesthetic techniques, the intervention was carried out with the technique of awake surgery, that is the "awake surgery", avoiding the risks for pregnancy.
Thoraco-pulmonary surgery performed under local anesthesia and sedation, without general anesthesia and mechanical ventilation, allows high-risk patients to be subjected to surgical procedures from which they would otherwise be excluded due to the high anesthetic risk. Everything went well: the patient's condition improved immediately and ultrasound checks confirmed that the unborn child is also fine.
(Unioneonline / D)