title: Postpneumonectomy-like syndrome presenting in a patient with treated pulmonary tuberculosis: a case report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Postpneumonectomy syndrome is a rare condition that is characterized by dyspnea resulting from an extreme mediastinal shift and bronchial compression of the residual lung following surgical pneumonectomy. It is even rarer for this syndrome to present in patients without a history of prior lung surgery but induced by autopneumonectomy due to parenchymal disease, an entity termed 'postpneumonectomy-like syndrome'.
  
  
  METHODS
  We present a rare case of a 91-year-old Puerto Rican man presenting with progressively worsening dyspnea with a history of pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed 40 years earlier who developed severe unilateral lung fibrosis. Plain X-ray and computed tomography scans confirmed the presence of postpneumonectomy-like syndrome secondary to his parenchymal lung destruction. The patient developed cor pulmonale due to his extensive lung disease and as a consequence was not a suitable candidate for surgical intervention. The patient was otherwise stable until he developed acute respiratory distress from an acute upper gastrointestinal bleed and died four days into his hospital course.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We present a rare case of postpneumonectomy-like syndrome as sequelae of severe pulmonary parenchymal tuberculosis infection along with a review of literature, in the hopes of aiding clinicians to include the differential of postpneumonectomy-like syndrome in patients presenting with worsening dyspnea without a history of surgical lung resection.
authors: Seton Hall University School of Graduate Medical Education; St, Michael's Medical Center, 111 Central Ave,, Newark, NJ 07102, USA. dr_jkam@hotmail.com.
authors: Jennifer C
authors: JC
authors: Kam
authors: Javier
authors: J
authors: Dieguez
authors: Vikram
authors: V
authors: Doraiswamy
authors: Enis
authors: E
authors: Alberaqdar
authors: Aparna
authors: A
authors: Ramchandran
authors: Marc
authors: M
authors: Adelman
authors: Alan J
authors: AJ
authors: Klukowicz
authors: Richard A
authors: RA
authors: Miller
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