Unusual treatment of patent foramen ovale after pneumonectomy.

This manuscript will focus on a rare complication: shunting through a patent foramen ovale (PFO) as a long term complication of right sided pneumonectomy or bilobectomy. Three patients who were diagnosed with shunting through a patent foramen ovale following lung resection are described. In these patients right ventricular compression by the elevated right hemidiaphragm was the cause of shunting through the PFO and surgical plication of the right hemidiaphragm was sufficient to close the PFO.