Patient Selection
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Pleura
January 17, 2011
In 1932, the radiologist Henry Pancoast first described a superior pulmonary sulcus tumor (SST) as a carcinoma (of uncertain origin) developing in the apex of the chest.
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.
March 18, 2009
Patients with recurrent or persistent spontaneous pneumothorax are treated thoracoscopically. Those with blebs or small bullae are generally managed by stapler resection of the lesions. We have recently experimented with a new device (Endo-Floating Ball) for the coagulation of blebs as an alternative to endostapler resection.
July 1, 2008
Thymectomy for myasthenia gravis, thymic cysts, thymoma less than two centimeters in size, and mediastinal parathyroid adenoma within the thymus are all indications for a video-assisted extended transcervical thymectomy.