Actinomyces israelii usually causes chronic suppurative and granulomatous infections. Isolated pleural effusion due to Actinomycosis is rare. This report describes an unusual case of thoracic empyema caused by A. israelii with sudden onset and rapid deterioration that failed to respond to chest tube drainage and antibiotherapy. Empyema drainage and visceral parietal pleurectomy by a left postol...

Results The diagnosis based on history (4 minimal stab wounds, 3 politrauma, and 1 difficult nephrectomy) and clinical exam matched the diagnosis. In one case (difficult nephrectomy two years before) the radiologic interpretation led to a wrong diagnosis of tension pneumothorax and a chest tube was inserted with consecutive gastric perforation and leakage of gastric content. Promptly recognized...

Double-lumen endobronchial tubes were placed "blindly" in 23 patients undergoing thoracotomy. Clinical criteria suggested satisfactory positioning in all cases; however, subsequent fibreoptic bronchoscopy revealed malposition in 48%. Bronchoscopic findings included the inability to view the bronchial cuff, narrowing of the bronchial lumen of the tube at the level of the cuff and herniation of t...

Background Thoracic injuries are a major cases of mortality during the “golden hour” of trauma. Less than 10% of all blunt thoracic injuries require a emergency thoracotomy and many potentially life threathening condition can be relieved by principle procedure, such as chest tube insertion. To describe general features correlated to incidence, diagnosis, etiology, sex, age, severity and treatme...

Tension pneumothorax during ventilating bronchoscopy for foreign body removal is a rare but life-threatening complication. The authors present a case of cardiac arrest caused by tension pneumothorax in a 9-month-old girl who underwent ventilating bronchoscopy for foreign body (peanut) removal. Tension pneumothorax was due to tracheobronchial lacerations caused by a bronchoscope. The patient was...

Percutaneous catheter drainage is a standard therapy for management of selected intra-abdominal abscesses. We describe three patients in whom this technique caused complicated thoracic empyemas. All patients required thoracotomy for decortication despite initial thoracostomy tube drainage. In each case, the percutaneously placed drainage catheter was found traversing the costophrenic angle, lea...

Successful treatment of traumatic hemothoraces is imperative to reduce morbidity and mortality among patients. Treatment modalities range from more conservative to invasive measures, including antibiotic therapy, thoracostomy tube placement, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, or thoracotomy. Various studies have documented success in using fibrinolytics such as tissue plasminogen activator (...

We report a 70-year-old man with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) who presented with right-sided extended-spectrum beta-lactamases Escherichia coli empyema thoracis. Chest and abdominal computed tomography showed hepatopleural fistula. The patient refused a surgical operation and was treated with tube thoracotomy, percutaneous drainage of dominant liver cyst, and intravenous...

A 61-year-old alcoholic man presented to the emergency department because of vomiting and dyspnea after discharged from hospital due to appendectomy two days ago. He smoked heavily and his past medical history revealed gastritis. On the examination, he was hypotension (50/00 mmHg) and lethargy. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was initiated aggressively. His chest x-ray showed right-sided tension ...