Thoracic Empyema Caused by Percutaneous Transhepatic Gallbladder Drainage.

Percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage (PTGBD) is an alternative to emergency laparoscopic cholecystectomy in high-risk patients with acute cholecystitis. Severe complications of this procedure are rare, except for drainage tube-related complications. A case of thoracic empyema, which is a rare complication of PTGBD, is reported; penetration of the pleural cavity seemed to be the cause of the thoracic empyema.

A case report of tuberculous abscess of the chest wall accompanied with pulmonary carcinoma.

With the decreasing incidence of tuberculosis (TB), tuberculous abscess of the chest wall (TACW) is becoming rare. Pulmonary carcinoma coexisting with pulmonary TB has been reported in the past, but reports of pulmonary TB accompanied with TACW are scarce. We present the first case of a 66-year-old male with TACW accompanied with pulmonary carcinoma.

[Positive sputum smear results after two consecutive negative smears during treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis].

Objectives: During treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, sputum smear may turn positive after 2 consecutive negative results. In the present study, we analyzed the infectivity in such cases.

Subjects And Methods: The study involved 201 patients with sputum smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis who were admitted to our hospital between January 2004 and June 2009.

[A study of adverse drug reactions in the treatment of pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex disease].

Objectives: Adverse drug reactions interfere with the standard treatment of pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) disease; however, few studies have investigated this issue. We studied adverse drug reactions in the treatment of pulmonary MAC disease.

Subjects: We retrospectively examined 74 patients who underwent treatment for pulmonary MAC disease in our hospital between January 2001 and December 2009.

[Nontuberculous pulmonary mycobacteriosis complicated by pleuritis].

Pleuritis is a rare complication associated with nontuberculous mycobacteriosis of the lung and its etiology remains to be clarified. We investigated pleuritis associated with nontuberculous mycobacteriosis of the lung in 304 patients who visited our hospital. Of these, 9 patients (3%) had pleural effusion not attributable to any factor other than pleuritis; these cases were diagnosed as pleuritis.