secondary clarifiers with large areas are widely applied in wastewater treatment plants. a pilot study was conducted to examine the possibility of applying one and two-stage inclined tube settlers instead of conventional secondary clarifiers. tube diameter in the first stage of the two-stage settler was wide as the conventional ones, but in the second stage, it was narrow to improve the efficie...

At the time of his hospital admission, he was noted to be tachypneic at rest hut felt subjectively he had been clinically improving. His leukemia was still in remission by laboratory analysis. Clinical examinatiomi identified decreased breath sounds over the right side of his chest. A CXR revealed a neai@complete lucency of the right hemithorax and a slight shift of the mediastimsum to the oppo...

A patient with post-pneumonia empyema complicated by type-2 respiratory failure required mechanical ventilation as part of his therapy. A pneumothorax was noted on his chest radiograph. This was treated with an intercostal chest drain (ICD). Unfortunately, he was still hypoxic, his subcutaneous emphysema was worsening and the ICD was bubbling. A computed tomography (CT) scan of chest demonstrat...

Percutaneous catheter drainage is a standard therapy for management of selected intra-abdominal abscesses. We describe three patients in whom this technique caused complicated thoracic empyemas. All patients required thoracotomy for decortication despite initial thoracostomy tube drainage. In each case, the percutaneously placed drainage catheter was found traversing the costophrenic angle, lea...

BACKGROUND Prolonged pulmonary air leaks (PALs) are associated with increased morbidity and extended hospital stay. We sought to investigate the role of bronchoscopic placement of 1-way valves in treating this condition. METHODS We queried a prospectively maintained database of patients with PAL lasting more than 7 days at a tertiary medical center. Main outcome measures included duration of ...

Hemothorax after blunt trauma results from injury to intrathoracic structures or the chest wall. Tube thoracostomy is the most common mode of treatment; depending on the type of injury, it is frequently the only intervention required. Rarely, blunt cardiac injury can produce hemothorax if a communication exists between the pericardium and pleural space. We describe such a case that highlights t...