Right atrial dilation due to left heart disease is a common complication among adults. The present review aimed to describe a case of massively dilated right atrium in a female patient presenting with valvular heart disease and no atrial fibrillation. The results of chest X-ray revealed a large opacity filling the lower right hemithorax, falsely interpreted as a mediastinal mass. During the tra...

Early attempts at intrathoracic surgery in nonventilated patients were fraught with rapidly developing respiratory distress and a fast moving operative field. The difficulty with performing a thoracotomy in a spontaneously breathing patient, for both the patient and the surgeon, is easily explained by two phenomena: Pendel-luft and Mediastinal shift (Fig. 5.1) [1]. Both phenomena can be explain...

Mesoconius Enderlein, including Zelatractodes Enderlein new synonym, is revised for Central America with one described species (Mesoconius hemithorax Frey) and five new species (M. bicolor, M. dianthus, M. nigrihumeralis, M. tigrinus, and M. zadbi). The relatively large species of this entirely Neotropical genus, most of which are restricted to narrow high elevation ranges, lack the male genita...

We report a case of trisomy 18 (47, XX+18) with intrathoracic kidney. It was discovered incidentally as an opacity at the right lower hemithorax on the chest radiograph, later confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging. Ultrasound can be used as the first-line imaging modality for intrathoracic kidney, even in the prenatal period.

Methods A 26 year-old lady presented with episodic breathlessness, chest tightness, recurrent nasal obstruction and excessive sneezing, mainly during change of season along with opacity of the right hemithorax on chest x-ray. Further detailed work-up including spirometry, high resolution CT scan of the thorax and fibreoptic bronchoscopy confirmed complete right lung agenesis in patients with br...

BACKGROUND It is a common practice to anesthetize patients before performing a thoracentesis. We postulated that this technique may cause a clinically significant difference in the pH of the pleural fluid. METHODS We compared two methods of determining pleural fluid pH. Fifty patients undergoing diagnostic or therapeutic thoracentesis were enrolled. Two 4-mL aliquots of pleural fluid were ana...

To cite: Arneill M, Wilson P, Hennessey D, et al. BMJ Case Rep Published online: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/bcr-2013201182 DESCRIPTION We report the case of a 67-year-old man with chronic pseudo-obstruction who presented to hospital with bilateral lower leg cellulitis. His medical history included depression and anxiety. Surgical history included a perforated sigmoid volvulus t...

A 77-yr-old male was admitted for aortic aneurysm repair. His history recorded hypertension, left carotid artery desobstruction, stroke and an anterior invocardial infarction. Aspirin was discontinued 1 day before surgery. For periand postoperative haemodynamic surveillance, a Swan-Ganz catheter (7.5 Fr thermodilution catheter; Criticath; Ohmeda, Bilthoven, the Netherlands) was introduced throu...