Chest wall volumes and breathing patterns of 13 male COPD patients were evaluated at rest and during inspiratory loaded breathing (ILB). The sternocleidomastoid (SMM) and abdominal muscle activity was also evaluated. The main compartment responsible for the tidal volume at rest and during ILB was the abdomen. During ILB patients exhibited, in addition to increases in the ratio of inspiratory ti...

Objective: Thoracic trauma may be a life-threatening condition. Flail chest is a severe chest injury with high mortality rates. Surgery is not frequently performed and, in Literature, data are controversial. The authors report their experience in the treatment of flail chest by an extracortical internal-external stabilization technique with Kirshner’s wires (K-wires). <...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the medium-term results of 77 surgical corrections in patients with chest wall deformities, 53 (68.8%) with pectus excavatum and 24 with pectus carinatum, operated upon from 1985 to 1994. METHODS The mean age of the patients was 14.7 years (4-39 years) and 77% were younger than 15 years of age. There were 59 male (76.7%) and 18 female patients. Only four had a family his...

Patients over the age of 65 years admitted to hospital with more than six rib fractures have a mortality rate as high 38%. Of survivors, 34% are likely be an aged care facility. High-quality analgesia is paramount mitigation fracture–associated morbidity and mortality. We report series ten consecutive patients eight fractured ribs. All were managed novel chest wall block. There no deaths, only ...

introduction: cauda equina secondary to metastatic follicular thyroid cancer of the lumbosacral area is a rare entity.   case report: we report an unusual case of a 52-year-old male who presented with backache, lower limb weakness, and perianal numbness. a ct-scan of the lumbosacral area showed an enhancing mass at the l4, l5 and s1 vertebrae. histopathology after excision revealed a metastatic...

a 16-day-old female was referred with congenital swelling on her right shoulder. on examination, there was a hard, round, ecchymotic, nontender, slightly movable, warm and shiny 10x15 cm mass on the right axillary pits which was extended to the right side of neck and chest wall. the mass separated the shoulder from the chest wall causing paralysis of right hand. chest x-ray, ultrasound and mri ...