The Innovated "Closed Chest Drainage System" of William Smoult Playfair (1871).

During the 19th century, the addition of the water-seal system to a closed chest drain was a major turning point in the history of thoracic surgery. German physician Gotthard Bülau seems to have invented and used his own closed chest drainage device with a liquid-seal system in 1875, and published it in the year 1891. But, in 1871, British physician William Smoult Playfair seems to have thought of the subaqueous drainage and used such drainage to treat the thoracic empyema in children.

IGF-1 alters the human parietal pleural electrochemical profile by inhibiting ion trans-cellular transportation after interaction with its receptor.

Objective: The effect of IGF-1 in the human pleural permeability and the underlying mechanisms involved were investigated.

Design: Specimens from thoracic surgical patients were mounted in Ussing chambers. Solutions containing IGF-1 (1 nM-100 nM) and IGF-1 Receptor Inhibitor (1 μΜ), amiloride 10 μM (Na(+) channel blocker) and ouabain 1 mM (Na(+)-K(+) pump inhibitor) were used in order to investigate receptor and ion transporter involvement respectively.

Rib fractures with heamothorax after labor: a case report.

Introduction: Maternal thoracic trauma during labor is extremely rare.

Case Presentation: A woman was presented at the Accident and Emergency Department complaining of pain over the lower thorax bilaterally which started after a difficult delivery when the obstetrician forced her lower thorax. Small right-sided haemothorax and rib fractures bilaterally were diagnosed and she was admitted to hospital.

Late presentation of jejunal perforation after thoracic trauma.

Jejunal perforation is extremely rare in trauma especially without initial involvement of the abdomen. We present the case of a delayed jejunal perforation after thoracic trauma with no initial indication of abdominal trauma in a 55-year-old man who was admitted to our department after a road traffic accident. The patient sustained thoracic trauma with rib fractures of the left hemithorax and hemopneumothorax and a mild head injury.