OBJECTIVE To confirm that either Fibrinolytic therapy or open decortication which of the two is an effective First line treatment of pleural empyema. METHODS This prospective comparative study was conducted in the department of surgery Sheikh Zayed Medical College and Hospital, Rahim Yaar Khan. Seventy eight (78) patients were included in this study. There were two groups of patients; Group I...

OBJECTIVE We aimed to evaluate whether the inclusion of videothoracoscopy in a pleural empyema treatment algorithm would change the clinical outcome of such patients. METHODS This study performed quality-improvement research. We conducted a retrospective review of patients who underwent pleural decortication for pleural empyema at our institution from 2002 to 2008. With the old algorithm (Jan...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES In this study, we evaluated the safety and efficacy of using the LigaSure sealing system (Valleylab, Boulder, Colorado) for laparoscopic decortication of symptomatic hilar renal cysts. METHODS Seventeen patients underwent laparoscopic decortication of hilar renal cysts with the LigaSure system. Our study included only symptomatic, Bosniak type 1, simple and symptomat...

AIM Departmental survey of the pediatric laparoscopic and thoracoscopic procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS It is a retrospective study from January 1999 to December 2007. The various types of surgeries, number of patients, complications and conversions of laparoscopic and thoracoscopic procedures were analyzed. RESULTS The number of minimally invasive procedures that had been performed over ...

UNLABELLED The fibrinopurulent phase of pleural empyema has very often been treated with thoracotomy and decortications. MATERIAL AND METHODS We analyzed the lung function of 19 surgically treated patients in the last 3 years. The lung function was followed up at least 6 months after surgery. RESULTS Before surgery the expected mean forced vital capacity (FVC) was 4650 ml, the expected mean...