A 25-year-old man was admitted in hospital due to right side hemopneumothorax secondary to car accident. A chest tube was inserted. During the hospitalization days, chest CT scan revealed a 3cmx3 cm oval-shaped density located in the right upper lobe. Since he was in a good general condition, he was discharged from hospital after removal of chest tube and a follow-up chest CT-scan was recommend...

OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence, reasons and prognosis about Horner's syndrome in thoracic surgical patients. METHODS In this prospective clinical study, 933 adult patients were assessed between the years of 1998 and 2002. All patients who underwent chest tube insertion (n: 662 patients) or thoracotomy (n: 342 patients), or who had thoracic trauma (n: 268 patients) were routinely examine...

On needle aspiration, pleural fluid was viscous, for which a chest tube was inserted for drainage. Aspirated fluid was subjected to microscopic examination and culture. Gramstaining revealed many polymorphs. Patient was given i.v. amikacin and ceftazidime, but his condition did not improve. On the fifth day of admission, left thoracotomy with decortication and empyema drainage was performed. Tw...

CONCLUSION TUS findings of fluid bronchogram, multifocal involvement, and pleural effusion were associated with adverse outcomes, including longer hospital stay, ICU admission, and tube thoracotomy in hospitalized CAP children. Therefore, TUS is a novel tool for prognostic stratifications of CAP in hospitalized children.

Intercostal artery laceration is an unusual complication following thoracentesis, and has been reported only in elderly patients. We report a case of a 78-year-old man who developed a massive hemothorax following thoracentesis. Post-thoracentesis radiograph revealed a substantial increase in pleural fluid, and emergency chest tube insertion identified the hemothorax. He underwent right thoracot...

INTRODUCTION Thoracoscopic (VATS) lobectomy after a decade of criticism is nowadays considered as a technically feasible, safe and oncologically proper operation. This approach has some advantages over conventional thoracotomy like: less postoperative pain, shorter hospitalization, fewer postoperative complications, better tolerance of adjuvant chemotherapy with comparable long-term survival ra...

OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of postoperative continuous pleural lavage (PCPL) after thoracotomy for the treatment of stage 2 pleural empyema in relation to postoperative length of stay and morbidity. METHODS Stage 2 pleural empyema was diagnosed with computer tomography. Conservative treatment including antibiotics and pleural aspiration was introduced. 89 patients treated for stage 2 pleu...

BACKGROUND Reoperation of cardiac surgery via median sternotomy can be associated with significant complications. Thoracotomy is expected to reduce the risk of reoperation and to enhance the surgical outcomes. We retrospectively analyzed two operative approaches (thoracotomy vs. sternotomy) in cardiac reoperation. MATERIALS AND METHODS From September 2007 to December 2010, 35 patients who req...

BACKGROUND The optimal chest tube size for the drainage of traumatic hemothoraces and pneumothoraces is unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of small versus large chest tubes for use in thoracic trauma. Our hypothesis was that (1) there would be no difference in clinically relevant outcomes including retained hemothoraces, the need for additional tube insertion, and in...