A Case of Hepatic Portal Venous Gas in a Patient Treated with Pemetrexed and Carboplatin for Lung Cancer

Abstract

Hepatic portal venous gas (HPVG) has rarely been reported in patients undergoing chemotherapy. We encountered a case of a 64-year-old man with stage IIIA lung adenocarcinoma who received adjuvant chemotherapy with pemetrexed and carboplatin and developed HPVG 1 day after the second chemotherapy. An emergency operation was performed, but the patient died 2 days after the operation because of multiple organ failure caused by sepsis. Since the patient had complained of alternating abdominal bloating and diarrhea during chemotherapy, we considered that the cause of HPVG was intestinal mucosal disruption and increased intraluminal pressure due to the chemotherapy.