The Short- and Long-term Efficacy of Artery Embolization Using Platinum Coils for Hemoptysis

<p>Background/Objective. As a treatment for hemoptysis, methods of embolizing arteries communicating with the lungs, such as bronchial artery embolization (BAE), have been established. The short- and long-term efficacy and safety of embolization using platinum coils in our hospital were individually evaluated for each artery involved in hemoptysis. Patients and Methods. A total of 179 patients who received BAE for hemoptysis from January 1998 to December 2012 were included in this study. A platinum coil was used as the embolic material. In addition, the arteries involved in hemoptysis were divided into the bronchial artery (BA) and thoracic wall artery (TA), and cases were classified into groups of diseases related to these arteries (the BA and TA disease groups) to evaluate their short- and long-term results. Results. Short-term outcomes were successful in 56 and failure in 4 in the BA and successful in 111 and failure in 8 in the TA. Long-term outcomes were successful in 54 and failure in 2 in the BA, and successful in 99 and failure in 12 in the TA. The proportion of embolized TA in addition to BAE was significantly higher in the TA group (40.8%) than in the BA group (1.6%). The proportion of patients with long-term failure tended to be higher in the TA (10.8%) than in the BA (3.6%). No patients died or experienced serious complications. Conclusions. Arterial embolization for hemoptysis resulted in a significantly larger number of long-term failures in the group of diseases in which the TAs were considered to be largely involved in hemoptysis than in those involving the BAs. Platinum coils, however, showed high short-term success rates with relatively few complications. Therefore, this approach was considered a recommendable therapy for hemoptysis. Patients with diseases in which BAs were mainly involved in hemoptysis had satisfactory long-term outcomes.</p>