Effective application of indocyanine green for visualization of the thoracic duct during video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for chylothorax: a case report.

Background: Chylothorax is an accumulation of typically milky-appearing lymphatic fluid within the pleural cavity. High-output chylothorax may lead to a severe risk of death if not treated promptly. Several studies have reported the effectiveness of indocyanine green (ICG) for chylothorax following lung cancer surgery, esophagectomy, and congenital and recurrent idiopathic chylothorax.

Delayed iatrogenic diaphragmatic hernia after thoracoscopic resection of diaphragm lipoma.

Background: Iatrogenic diaphragmatic hernias have been reported as a rare complication of thoracic and abdominal surgery. We herein report a case of delayed iatrogenic left diaphragmatic hernia after diaphragm pedunculated lipoma resection with minimally invasive surgery.

Case Presentation: A 72-year-old Japanese man was found to have an abnormal shadow by medical checkup X-ray and was admitted to our hospital.

Thoracoscopic and laparoscopic approach for pleuroperitoneal communication under peritoneal dialysis: a report of four cases.

Background: Pleuroperitoneal communication (PPC) is a rare complication of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and often forces patients to switch to hemodialysis. Some efficiencies of video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) for PPC have been reported recently; however, there is no standard approach for these complications. In this case series, we present a combined thoracoscopic and laparoscopic approach for PPC in four patients to better assess its feasibility and efficiency.

A Case of Intractable Lung Abscess Following Dropped Gallstone-Induced Subphrenic Abscess: A Rare Postoperative Complication Caused by Dropped Gallstone During Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.

Dropped gallstones into the abdominal cavity due to perforation of the gallbladder occasionally occur during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Abscess formation caused by residual gallstones is one of the late postoperative complications after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Most of them are intra-abdominal abscesses; however formation of intra-thoracic abscesses, in particular, lung abscess, is less described, and surgery for an intra-thoracic abscess is rarely performed.

A case of pleuroperitoneal communication in which establishing a laparoscopic pneumoperitoneum was useful for the detection of a fistula.

Background: Pleuroperitoneal communication (PPC) is rarely observed, accounting for 1.6% of all patients who undergo continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). Although there have been several reports concerning the management of this condition, we have encountered several cases in which control failed.

Unusual giant multilocular mesothelial cyst of mediastinum.

Background: Intrathoracic mesothelial cysts are congenital lesions induced by the abnormal development of the pericardial coelom. There have been a few reports of giant mesothelial cyst of the superior mediastinum, but the preferred treatment remains a controversial topic. We herein report a rare case of successful removal of giant mesothelial cyst that was incidentally detected during a medical checkup.

Multifocal cholesterol granulomas of the anterior mediastinum.

Background: Cholesterol granuloma in the mediastinum is rarely observed, accounting for 1% of all mediastinum tumors. There have been only a few reports of multifocal cholesterol granulomas of the thymus. We herein report a rare case of multifocal cholesterol granuloma in the thymus that was incidentally detected during follow-up of an aortic aneurysm.

Superior vena cava replacement combined with venovenous shunt for thymic carcinoma.

Introduction: Advanced-stage thymic malignancies are a heterogeneous group of mediastinal tumors that include thymoma and thymic carcinoma infiltrating the surrounding thoracic structures. When the tumor infiltrates the superior vena cava (SVC), radical resection can be selectively achieved via en bloc SVC resection and its prosthetic conduit replacement. We herein report a case of SVC replacement for thymic carcinoma en bloc radical resection.

Mediastinal lymph node metastases in lung cancer presenting as pure ground-glass nodules: A surgical case report.

Introduction: Generally, lung cancer representing as Ground-glass nodules is associated with an early stage and good prognosis. However, we herein report a rare case of pure ground-glass nodules with mediastinal lymph node metastases.

Presentation Of Case: A 69-year-old man underwent video assisted thoracic surgery right upper lobectomy with mediastinal lymph node dissection due to multifocal Ground-glass nodules in the right upper lobe of the lung.

A minimally invasive and safe surgical approach to resect anterior superior sulcus tumors.

Introduction: Superior sulcus tumors (SSTs) are a wide range of tumors invading a section of the apical chest wall called the thoracic inlet. The unique characteristics of SSTs lie in the anatomy of the region where these tumors occur. For this reason, a surgical approach to treating these tumors is technically demanding, and complete resection may be difficult to accomplish.

Two extremely rare cases of extrapleural hematoma.

Background: Extrapleural hematoma is uncommon. However, according to the size of hematoma and/or the progression of anemia, surgical treatment to control bleeding might be necessary because a huge hematoma can cause ventilator and circulatory disturbances to press heart and lung. We present two unusual cases of huge extrapleural hematoma in an anticoagulated patient with no apparent history of trauma or otherwise traumatic episodes.

Prognostic factors of advanced or postoperative recurrent non-small cell lung cancer targeted with immune check point inhibitors.

Background: Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been established as one of standard therapy, the prognostic factors of ICIs remain unclear, aside from the programed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression of tumor cells. The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic factors of ICIs.

Methods: We analyzed the clinicopathological data of 44 cases of advanced NSCLC targeted with ICIs in our hospital, between February 2016 and February 2018, in order to determine the prognostic factors of ICIs.

Thymic papillary adenocarcinoma coexisting with type A thymoma: A case report.

Introduction: Thymic papillary adenocarcinoma is rare. Further, thymic papillary adenocarcinoma coexisting with type A thymoma is extremely rare. Surgery remains the only effective treatment for this disease.

Detection of circulating tumor cells with a novel microfluidic system in malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Detection of rare tumor cells circulating in the blood (CTCs) presents technical challenges. CellSearch, the only approved system for clinical use, fails to capture epithelial cell adhesion molecule-negative CTCs such as malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). We have developed a novel microfluidic device (CTC-chip) in which any Ab to capture CTCs is conjugated.

Effect of erlotinib plus bevacizumab on brain metastases in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: The standard therapy for brain metastasis (BM) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is radiation therapy (RT), although it is associated with complications such as leukoencephalopathy. In the current report, we retrospectively review data from eight patients who had NSCLC and harbored epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations, and who were received erlotinib plus bevacizumab (E+B) as first-line therapy for BM.

Methods: Patients were given E+B as first therapy for BM until August 2017 at our institution.

Complete resection of an anterior mediastinal tumor by total arch replacement and pulmonary artery trunk plasty with a pericardial patch: A case report.

Introduction: Patients with undiagnosed anterior mediastinal tumors commonly undergo surgery for diagnosis and treatment. However, determining the optimal therapeutic strategy is difficult for tumors with substantial invasion, such as lesions touching the aortic arch (AA).

Case Presentation: A 76-year-old man of Asian descent presented to our hospital because chest computed tomography (CT) revealed an anterior mediastinal tumor.

Outcomes of patients undergoing surgery for thymic carcinoma: a single-center experience.

Background: Thymic carcinoma is uncommon, presents locally at an advanced stage, and behaves aggressively. The optimum treatment for advanced thymic carcinoma is controversial. We retrospectively reviewed our institutional experience with patients with thymic carcinoma.

Virtual-assisted lung mapping (VAL-MAP) shortened surgical time of wedge resection.

Background: The detection of extremely small lung tumors has increased with the development of computed tomography. Resection of such tumors by thoracoscopy is often hindered due to the unclear location of the tumor. Various methods of preoperative determination of such lesions have been attempted, but without marked success.

Complete resection of the primary lesion improves survival of certain patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: The standard treatment for patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is systemic chemotherapy. However, certain patients, such as those with oligometastasis or M1a disease undergo resection of the primary lesion.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of the records of 1,471 consecutive patients with NSCLC who underwent resection of the primary lesion for between June 2005 and May 2016.

Mediastinal Tracheostoma for Treatment of Tracheostenosis after Tracheostomy in a Patient with Mucopolysaccharidosis-Induced Tracheomalacia.

Background: Treatment of tracheostenosis after tracheostomy in pediatric patients is often difficult. Mucopolysaccharidosis is a lysosomal storage disease that may induce obstruction of the airways.

Case Presentation: A 16-year-old male patient underwent long-term follow-up after postnatal diagnosis of type II mucopolysaccharidosis.

Postoperative thoracic hemorrhage after right upper lobectomy with thoracic wall resection during rivaroxaban anticoagulant therapy for deep leg vein thrombosis: A case report.

Introduction: Postoperative pulmonary embolism (PE) is the one of the most important complications after thoracic surgery. This complicatin after the surgery is often treated by new anticoaglant drug, such as rivaroxaban, which dose not need to the monitoring of blood coaglation system. We experienced postoperative bleeding case during anticoaglant therapy using rivaroxaban.

[Our Experiences of Vertebrectomy for Lung Cancer Invading the Spine].

Background: Surgery for lung cancer invading the spine remains challenging associated with high morbidity and mortality. We describe our surgical approach and assess the outcome of surgical treatment lung cancer invading the spine.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our recent experiences of lung cancer with vertebral invasion, in which we have performed total or partial vertebrectomy from 2011 through 2015.

The major thoracic vascular invasion of lung cancer.

Background: We actually investigated the surgical and pathological findings in cases which tumor invasion of the major thoracic vessels was suspected based on the preoperative Computed tomography (CT) findings.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our prospective database of all patients, who underwent lung resection for lung cancer from 2012 to 2014. 387 patients underwent lung cancer surgery.