Malpositioned Central Venous Catheters: A Diagnostic Dilemma

Central venous cannulation is routinely done to infuse inotropes, for measuring central venous pressure, for total parenteral infusion, for large-bore venous access, and for infusing chemotherapeutic drugs. Various complications like pneumothorax, hemothorax, chylothorax, malposition, and fracture of catheters are described after central venous cannulation. Malpostioning of a central venous catheter into an anomalously draining left-sided pulmonary vein is a rare complication. We report a case of a patient presenting for carotid body tumor excision in whom the central venous catheter was malpositioned who was found to have a partial anomalous pulmonary venous drainage of the left lung.