Congenital unilateral pulmonary venous atresia with pulmonary veno-occlusive disease in contralateral lung: an unusual association.

A patient presenting with the rare association of congenital unilateral pulmonary venous atresia in one lung and pulmonary veno-occlusive disease in the other is described. The patient first presented at the age of 3 1/2 years with anemia, hemoptysis, and pulmonary hypertension. After cardiac catheterization and angiocardiography, a diagnosis of atresia of the left pulmonary veins was made for which left pneumonectomy was done. Four years later the patient presented with right-sided congestive failure and radiologic evidence of right-sided pulmonary edema from which death resulted. At autopsy, the right lung showed changes of pulmonary veno-occlusive disease, while the major veins were not involved.