A 42-year-old man with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) presented to the emergency department (ED) complaining of worsening shortness of breath and respiratory distress. His home oxygen requirement was 2 liters by nasal canula, and he has had multiple prior hospital admissions for respiratory failure.
ALERT!
This site is not optimized for Internet Explorer 8 (or older).
Please upgrade to a newer version of Internet Explorer or use an alternate browser such as Chrome or Firefox.
Basic science
August 30, 2010
Hemodynamically stable patients with an undiagnosed pericardial effusion are well suited for a thoracoscopic window. When pericardial, pleural, or pulmonary pathology co-exist and require diagnosis or therapy, a thoracoscopic approach is ideal.
August 30, 2010
Pericardial cysts are an uncommon benign congenital anomaly in the middle mediastinum. They represent 6% of mediastinal masses, and 33% of mediastinal cysts. Other cysts in the mediastinum are bronchogenic – 34%, enteric – 12%, thymic and others – 21%.
October 6, 2009
Ligation of the thoracic duct is indicated in any patient with a traumatic or iatrogenic chylothorax who has not responded to a brief trial of conservative management such as a low-fat diet, medium-chain triglycerides, total parenteral nutrition, and/or octreotide.
September 13, 2009
A 62-year-old Ukrainian man presented with facial swelling, chest wall varices, and a large mediastinal mass. He underwent core biopsy that demonstrated a mixed thymoma. Nine years previously, the patient had undergone an anterior thoracotomy and excisional biopsy of a mediastinal mass demonstrating necrotic tissue and no definitive diagnosis was made.
September 13, 2009
The patient is a 16-year-old male who was a restrained passenger in a car that collided with a guardrail at high speed. He was initially admitted to the referring hospital with no respiratory symptoms and with oxygen saturations over 90%.
December 8, 2008
Pulmonary sequestrations are rare congenital malformations of lung tissue that do not connect normally to the tracheobronchial tree and receive systemic blood supply … Although 10-15% of patients may remain asymptomatic, most experts recommend resection to establish a diagnosis and prevent future complications.
September 3, 2008
Introduction
August 19, 2008
Patient Selection