We read with great interest the recent publication by Steinfort et al. [1] outlining profound reduction in influenza infections Australia as a result of social distancing during COVID-19 pandemic. Similar dramatic effects on paediatric hospital activity have been reported, reduced admissions, presentations for respiratory conditions and detection other viruses [2–6]. However, impact pandemic ba...

Pneumonia is an infection of the lung parenchyma caused by a wide variety of organisms in pediatric patients. The role of imaging is to detect the presence of pneumonia, and determine its location and extent, exclude other thoracic causes of respiratory symptoms, and show complications such as effusion/empyema and suppurative lung changes. The overarching goal of this article is to review cause...

A benign fistula between the gastric tube and the airway resulting from esophagectomy is a rare complication, but it is a potentially life-threatening status. We present a 59-year-old man with thoracic empyema and lung abscess resulting from a benign gastric tube-to-pulmonary fistula caused by a penetration of the peptic ulcer in the gastric tube four years after an esophagectomy for esophageal...

A best evidence topic in thoracic surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was whether an open surgical approach is superior to minimally invasive surgery in patients with postpneumonectomy empyema (PPE). Overall 171 papers were found using the reported search, of which 12 represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The authors, journal, ...

A 22-year-old man, a recent immigrant from Mexico, was admitted to a Wisconsin hospital because of a swelling of the chest wall and right axilla. Originally, it was thought to be a skin infection with Staphylococcus aureus. When the treatment was unsuccessful, the patient returned to the hospital and the abscesses were found to have been caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Furthermore, there ...

INTRODUCTION Nutritionally variant streptococci (NVS) are an infrequent cause of human infection with Granulicatella elegans being the least encountered species in clinical specimens. The most common infection caused by NVS is infective endocarditis. CASE PRESENTATION We report an unusual case of thoracic empyema due to G. elegans in a patient with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and human immuno...

A 71-year-old man presented with a productive cough and fever, and he was diagnosed as having an esophageal perforation and a mediastinal abscess. He had a history of traumatic hemothorax and pleural drainage for empyema in the right chest and was considered unable to tolerate thoracic surgery because of sepsis and progressive aspiration pneumonia. In order to aggressively drain the mediastinal...

Iatrogenic pulmonary barotrauma and cerebral arterial gas embolism (CAGE) may complicate a variety of medical procedures, such as certain types of surgery, drug administration through thoracic drainage, pneumoperitoneum, cystoscopy, bronchoscopy, etc. Hyperbaric oxygen treatment following the guidelines for CAGE in diving is the treatment of choice. Pleural streptokinase instillation is a commo...