tocele in the left upper lobe. A linear air pocket in the soft tissue of the left upper hemithorax was also noted ( fig. 1 c). CT revealed a 15 ! 6 cm cavitary lesion in the left upper lobe extending and communicating with the chest wall through a fistulous tract without pneumothorax or mediastinal emphysema ( fig. 2 ). The subcutaneous air pocket had been noted on the patient’s examination 4 y...

Lung resection for benign diseases in infants is an extremely difficult thoracic surgical decision. Paediatric patients with drainage resistant pneumothorax and/or pneumatocele due to destroyed lung pose an even more challenging task. We describe a parenchyma sparing method using a sealant-haemostatic complex foam (Tachosyl) developed originally for application in liver and kidney surgery. Both...

A 27 year old white woman with a history of chronic eczema and episodes of serious infection of the chest, skin, and bone presented with acute respiratory failure. She was found to have a spontaneous right pneumothorax and a pneumatocele in the left upper lobe. Despite a left upper lobectomy she was left with chronic respiratory failure, bullous lung disease, and bilateral bronchiectasis. The h...

Intracranial pneumatocele is a non-infected accumulation of air within the cranial cavity. We report a case of a 22-year-old male who sustained a fracture of anterior cranial fossa following a motor vehicle accident and the imaging findings showed a concave-convex epidural haematoma. Simple traumatic pneumocephalus usually does not require surgical treatment and non-operative management has bee...

Malignant neoplasms are reported to occur with long-standing tuberculous pleuritis or chronic empyema. During the clinical course of chronic empyema, subjective symptoms such as chest pain and deterioration of dyspnea and abnormal clinical signs such as increased abnormal chest shadows have frequently been found. Though difficult, differentiating the occurrence of malignant tumors from worsenin...

BACKGROUND Surgery is routinely recommended for lumbar lipomyelomeningocele, especially in the setting of tethered cord syndrome. The most common complications are wound infections and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, which remain confined to the surgical site. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no prior reports relating an intracranial subdural empyema following detethering surgery. ...

Empyema is a problem faced by clinicians worldwide. Most cases are caused by Gram-positive organisms, such as streptococci and staphylococci. Empyema caused by Capnocytophaga spp. is extremely uncommon (H. Bonatti et al., Clin. Microbiol. Infect. 9:380-387, 2003). We present a unique case of a polymicrobial empyema, with a predominance of Capnocytophaga sputigena, in an older patient with no hi...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a common causative agent for childhood pneumonia. However, empyema is a rare presentation. We report a case of a previously well child who presented with a right-sided empyema. M. pneumoniae was confirmed serologically with evidence of a four-fold rise in Mycoplasma IgM titre. The empyema required drainage procedures for more than two weeks. The infection resolved with ...

Empyema thoracis is a well known complication following para-pneumonic effusions in paediatric age group. Usually it is unilateral but rarely could be bilateral. Herein we report a case of bilateral tuberculous empyema thoracis in a 12 years old, unvaccinated girl with a positive history of contact with tuberculosis. She was managed conservatively with tube thoracostomies and anti-tuberculous d...

A 36−year−old man with organizing right pleural empyema was treated by decortication, however the lung failed to expand. Intraoperative bronchoscopy disclosed foreign body (chicken bone) obstructing the right main bronchus. Extraction of the foreign body was followed by immediate expansion of the lung and uneventful recovery. Pleural empyema may be caused by a foreign body obstructing bronchus....