Chest tube insertion is the most commonly performed procedure in the thoracic surgery practice. This surgical procedure has various complications, however, Horner’s syndrome resulting from compression of the stellat ganglia due to apical insertion of chest tube is extremely rare. In this article a 21-year-old male patient who was treated with chest tube insertion for spontaneous pneumothorax at...

We have reported previously that there is a high incidence of hemothorax and substantial mortality in rabbits that are given tetracycline derivatives intrapleurally. However, such complications have not been reported in humans when pleurodesis is attempted with tetracycline derivatives. One primary difference in the two situations is that a chest tube is placed only in humans. The objective of ...

We report a case of herniation of abdominal contents into the left hemithorax in a patient with a history of vague left-sided thoracoabdominal trauma 18 days previous to admission and who also had a recent 1-week history of upper respiratory symptoms, including cough, and then presented with dyspnoea and fever for 3 days. There was no preceding cardiorespiratory pathology of note. We also discu...

OBJECTIVES In fast-track pulmonary resections, we removed chest tubes after video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lobectomy with serous fluid production up to 500 ml/day. Subsequently, we evaluated the frequency of recurrent pleural effusions requiring reintervention. METHODS Data from 622 consecutive patients undergoing VATS lobectomy from January 2009 to December 2011 were registered prosp...

Malpositioning is one of the most common complications of chest tube insertion and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. We present two cases of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) in whom malpositioned chest tubes penetrated through the anterior mediastinum to the contralateral pleural cavity, and were later removed without complications. Both patients h...

Twelve patients with a chest tube positioned in the major fissure of either lung were collected prospectively in a two-year period. In eight of these 12, there was evidence of chest tube malfunction, with poor drainage of pleural air or fluid collections; in six of these eight, placement of additional tubes or tube repositioning resulted in improved pleural drainage. In all 12, the tube had bee...

This patient presented with a left sided pneumothorax. A chest tube was inserted and subsequent chest X-rays showed re-expansion of the left lung. Follow-up chest computed tomography (CT) revealed a soft tissue emphysema and a malpositioned chest tube. However, something odd was also noted in the CT.

STUDY OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to determine the impact of the timing of chest tube insertion on outcome for the treatment of empyema, using a new animal model of empyema. DESIGN A prospective, controlled randomized, blinded design was used. SETTING The study was conducted in an animal research laboratory. PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS Sixty-six 2- to 3-kg rabbits were used in...