In patients with blunt chest trauma, early diagnosis of mediastinal hematoma is important, because it could be associated with thoracic vessel injury. Mediastinal hematoma is generally evoked because of a widened mediastinum on chest radiograph, but radiologic diagnosis may lead to excessive angiography being performed. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) provides accurate views of the media...

This note describes the sudden death of a dog by the rupture of the thoracic aorta caused by the presence of Angiostrongylus vasorum. A female mongrel canine with a history of weight loss and exhaustion died two hours after clinical examination. At necropsy, performed one hour after death, showed the presence of clotted blood in the thoracic cavity. Haemothorax was diagnosed. The thoracic aorta...

PURPOSE With the new mode of Tomotherapy, irradiation can be delivered using static ports of the TomoDirect mode. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of TomoDirect plans compared to conventional TomoHelical plans. METHODS TomoDirect and TomoHelical plans were compared in 46 patients with a prostate, thoracic wall or lung tumor. The mean target dose was used as the pr...

BACKGROUND Soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) are rare malignant tumors of embryogenic mesoderm origin. Primary thoracic STSs account for a small percentage of all STSs and limited published information is available. This study aimed to identify the prognostic factors for thoracic STSs and evaluate the disease's clinical outcomes. METHODS The medical records of 109 patients with thoracic STSs who we...

Skeletal muscle metastasis from pancreatic cancer is rare. We present a 72-year-old female patient with unresectable pancreatic tail cancer. Fifteen months after the introduction of the chemoradiotherapy, an 18-mm elastic hard tumor was found in her right chest wall and resected after confirmation of no other metastatic lesions. Postoperative pathological examination diagnosed it as a muscle me...

BACKGROUND We describe the second largest contemporary series of flaps used in thoracic reconstruction. METHODS A retrospective review of patients undergoing thoracomyoplasty from 2001 to 2013 was conducted. Ninety-one consecutive patients were identified. RESULTS Thoracomyoplasty was performed for 67 patients with intrathoracic indications and 24 patients with chest wall defects. Malignanc...

BACKGROUND  Major thoracic wall resections require the implantation of foreign materials for reconstruction and stabilization. Recently, biological collagen matrixes have emerged as an alternative to the routinely used synthetic materials. MATERIALS AND METHODS  Retrospectively, we analyzed our initial experience of chest wall reconstruction on large defects using a cross-linked porcine derma...

We examined the effect of oral breathing on respiratory movements, including the number of respirations and the movement of the thoracic wall at rest and while chewing gum. Forty normal nose breathers were selected by detecting expiratory airflow from the mouth using a CO2 sensor. Chest measurements were recorded using a Piezo respiratory belt transducer, and electromyographic (EMG) activity of...