Transsternal transpericardial closure of a postpneumonectomy bronchial fistula in a patient who underwent pneumonectomy because of a war injury.

Most common causes of intrathoracic empyema include pulmonary infections and postoperative bronchopleural fistulas complicating a lung surgical resection, mainly pneumonectomy, as a result of the failure of the bronchial stump to heal. A 22-year-old Serbian patient presented with chronic posttraumatic empyema. Two years before during a war, he experienced chest injury due to a firearm wound, with massive intrathoracic bleeding and need for emergency left pneumonectomy.

Prognostic factors and long-term results of pulmonary metastasectomy for pediatric histologies.

Objective: Pulmonary resection in metastatic pediatric solid tumors is an accepted method of treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical course, outcome and prognostic factors after surgery.

Methods: A retrospective analysis from 1985 to 2006 of 52 patients less than 17 years old at the time of tumor diagnosis and submitted to thoracotomy for pulmonary metastatic disease was performed.

Cough-induced intercostal lung herniation requiring surgery: Report of a case.

Lung herniation is a rare event defined by protrusion of the lung through an abnormal weakness in the thoracic wall. We report a case of spontaneous intercostal pulmonary herniation, which occurred as a result of vigorous coughing. We repaired the herniation by approximating the ribs with heavy stitches.

Correlation of the WHO schema for the classification of thymic epithelial neoplasms with prognosis: a retrospective study of 90 tumors.

A series of 90 thymic epithelial tumors were reviewed and classified by histopathologic characteristics into the three major categories (A, B, and C) recognized by the WHO schema. Each tumor type was correlated with patient characteristics and clinical data (age, sex, presence of myasthenia gravis, tumor size and invasiveness, and completeness of resection), and with outcome (survival, recurrence, and metastasis). All tumors were categorized by the WHO schema.

[Chest wall tumors. Report of 17 cases].

The aim of this work was to evaluate the different approaches to surgical repair of the thoracic wall and to discuss technical indications. From June 1987 to June 1997, we cared for 17 patients, 14 males (82.3%) and 3 females (17.

[A rare cause of hemoptysis].

The existence of a bronchial foreign body is an unusual cause of haemoptysis. We observed a sixty two year-old women who presented several medium-abundance haemoptysis. They were associated with a systematic alveolar-interstitial radiological picture of the ventral upper right lobe.

Respiratory bronchiolitis in smokers with spontaneous pneumothorax.

Respiratory bronchiolitis (RB) is defined by the accumulation of pigmented macrophages in the lumen and wall of respiratory and membranous bronchioles of smokers. The aim of this study was to determine whether spontaneous pneumothorax was associated with a high prevalence of RB. Seventy-nine consecutive patients who underwent a surgical procedure (thoracotomy or thoracoscopy) for recurrence or persistence of primary spontaneous pneumothorax despite thoracic drainage were studied retrospectively.

[Pleuro-peritoneal Denver shunt in treatment of chronic pleurisy].

The first utilisation in our hospital of a pleuraperitoneal shunt for the treatment of chronic pleurisy enabled us to study, in the light of published data, the place for such a procedure in the management of resistant pleural effusion. The aetiology of the pleurisy in a 70-year old patient who underwent this mini-invasive surgery was unknown when the shunt was inserted, but his symtoms clearly improved afterwards. At the present time with a follow-up of 13 months, there are no local complications and the system is in good working order.

Self-expanding metal stents for the management of bronchial stenosis and bronchomalacia after lung transplantation.

Background: Airway stenosis or malacia after lung transplantation, usually as a result of anastomotic ischemia, remains a major problem.

Methods: The authors report their experience with the Gianturco expandable stent for the management of 23 bronchial stenoses in 18 patients following lung transplantation. Stent placement occurred an average of 5.

[Results of 100 pulmonary and cardiopulmonary transplants in 95 patients at the Louis Pradel Hospital (Lyon) from 1988 to 1994].

From June 1989 to December 1994, 95 patients underwent 100 pulmonary and cardiopulmonary transplants. The patients were 58 men and 37 women with an average age of 39 +/- 15 years. In 15 of the cases, indication for a transplant was infectious pathology, in 35 of the cases; vascular pathology, in 23 of the cases; emphysema and in 22 of the cases the causes were various.

Contralateral haemorrhagic pulmonary metastases ("choriocarcinoma syndrome") after pneumonectomy for primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma.

The case history is presented of a patient which illustrates both the diagnostic difficulties of an extremely rare tumour (choriocarcinoma of the lung) and its associated haemorrhagic metastases (“choriocarcinoma syndrome”).

[Surgery for bronchiectasis. Operative indications and results. 48 observations].

Forty-eight patients: 27 women and 21 men, with mean age of 36 +/- 14 years were operated on for bronchiectasis from 1976 to 1989. In 20 cases bronchiectasis was the sequelae of acute bronchopathy of childhood, 6 cases of tuberculosis and 5 cases of inhalated foreign bodies. The bronchiectasis was apparently primitive in 12 occasions.

[Inflammatory pseudotumor of the superior vena cava: rare etiology of mediastinal tumor].

The patient reported here had no particular past history. He presented with effort dyspnea, jugular turgescence and positional vertigo suggestive of a superior vena cava obstruction syndrome. Bronchial fibroscopy was normal, but chest X-ray, CT scan and phlebography of the superior vena cava revealed an anterior mediastinal tumour compressing the superior vena cava.

Single lung transplantation for primary pulmonary hypertension without cardiopulmonary bypass.

We report the first case, to our knowledge, of single lung transplantation for primary pulmonary hypertension carried out without cardiopulmonary bypass. This operation seems to be possible even if the right ventricular ejection fraction is low (0.17) and the pulmonary vascular resistance very high (1,096 dynes.

Thoracic splenosis presenting with hemoptysis.

Thoracic splenosis (post-traumatic autotransplantation of splenic tissue) is rare and generally asymptomatic. We report a patient with thoracic splenosis presenting with repeated hemoptysis. The blood supply of the hypervascular splenic transplants originated from a bronchial and an intercostal artery.

[Spontaneous and recurrent pneumothorax. Surgical treatment. Apropos of 278 cases].

Over the past 19 years, 278 patients (238 men-40 women) have undergone 325 parietal pleurectomies: 311 transaxillary apical and 14 full pleurectomies. Mean age was 32 +/- 12 years. The overall male:female ratio was 6:1.

[Surgical lung biopsy].

Open lung biopsy enables a diagnosis to be made in cases of diffuse infiltrative pulmonary disease. It was developed to aid the diagnosis of opportunistic infectious disease observed in virus infections in immune deficiency states and during transplants. Open lung biopsy involves the partial resection of the lung parenchyma.

Seventeen years of surgical treatment of thymoma: factors influencing survival.

We report on 17 years experience of the surgical treatment of thymoma in 65 patients, 11 with and 54 without myasthenia gravis. Patients were staged using the French "GETT" classification; 38 were in stage I (no invasive tumor), 6 in stage II, 13 in stage III and 8 in stage IV. In 45 patients, surgical excision was total while the remaining 20 underwent partial resection only.

[Our experience of the surgical treatment of thirty-nine tracheobronchial carcinoid tumors].

Thirty-nine patients were operated for bronchial carcinoid tumour between 1967 and 1988 out of a total of 97 so-called benign bronchial tumours. Based on a clinical, radiological and endoscopic assessment of this series, the authors discuss the modalities of surgical treatment which depend on the site of the tumour. Treatment consisted of enucleation for the two peripheral carcinoid tumours and tracheobronchectomy in 6 cases (15%) and pulmonary resection in 31 cases (79%) for the central tumours.

[Primary tumor of the thoracic wall unusual in aged patients: costal osteosarcoma].

Osteosarcoma is a tumour that is encountered in children and young adults but is exceptional in elderly people. Moreover, it is very rarely located in the chest. A case of costal osteosarcoma revealed by a pleural blood effusion is reported in a 66-year old male patient.