Lethal hemoptysis caused by biopsy injury of an abnormal bronchial artery

A 62-year-old man with a long history of lung disease developed atelectasis of the right middle lung lobe, caused by a protrusion in the wall of the m iddle lobe bronchus. A biopsy was performed in the suspicious region. This was immediately followed by massive arterial bleeding into the airways and complicated by cardiac an est soon after. The bleeding could not be control led by nonsurgical treatment; the patient died 24 h after the complication because of pulmonary insufficiency. Autopsy revealed the bleeding to have b een caused by a biopsy injury of a bronchial artery that had run superficia lly in the bronchial mucosa and had produced the intrabronchial protrusion. Several other abnormal intrabronchial arteries were found peripherally in this lung.