Delayed Massive Hemothorax From Traumatic Inferior Pulmonary Ligament Tear: A Case Report

Hemothorax is often caused by blunt or penetrating trauma, a medical procedure, or direct tumoral erosion. Traumatic hemothorax is usually a consequence of intrathoracic organ damage, such as the chest wall or lung parenchyma. Herein we present a very rare case of traumatic hemothorax caused by inferior pulmonary ligament injury. The patient was a 64-year-old man, and he got injured due to loss of consciousness during bicycle riding. Since the patient was in a shock state and bleeding continued, video-assisted thoracic surgery was performed. We found that a small laceration of the inferior pulmonary ligament was a cause of hemothorax and haemostasis with soft coagulation was performed. The inferior pulmonary ligament injury is an extremely rare condition as a cause of traumatic hemothorax, and only two cases including the present case have been reported. We should consider inferior pulmonary ligament injury as one of the causes of traumatic hemothorax.