A Relative Contra-Indication to Mediastinoscopy

Abstract

In a patient in whom a coarctation of the aorta had been successfully operated on 17 years earlier, a life-threatening haemorrhage from a thin-walled, dilated collateral artery occurred in conjunction with a mediastino-scopy. It is argued that diseases with increased medias-tinal collateral vessels (coarctation of the aorta, cyanotic heart disease, severe suppurative lung disease) are relative contraindications to mediastinoscopy, even after a corrective procedure has been carried out.