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Mesothelioma
Treatment
Articles
and Abstracts
Medical
thoracoscopy, results and complications in
146 patients: a retrospective study
Respir
Med 1998 Feb;92(2):228-32
Hansen
M, Faurschou P, Clementsen P
Department
of Pulmonary Medicine Y, University
Hospital Gentofte, Denmark.
In
a retrospective study the results of
medical thoracoscopy in 147 patients were
reviewed; 136 of the patients had pleural
effusion and 11 patients had diffuse
pulmonary infiltration. All the pleural
exudates were initially screened three
times successively and found to be sterile
and without tumour cells. All
thoracoscopies were performed with local
anaesthesia, with the 'open technique',
and nine different doctors performed the
thoracoscopies. The overall diagnostic
sensitivity was 90.4%. The results
demonstrated 62% with malignancy of the
pleura, and 38% revealed benign pleural
diseases, among them 2% with tuberculosis.
The sensitivity for malignancy was found
to be 88% and the specificity 96%. The
most common primary lung cancer with
involvement of the pleura was the
adenocarcinoma (62%), and the most common
metastatic tumour originated from the
breast (28%). The sensitivity for
tuberculosis was 100% and the specificity
100%. No mortality was found, and the
morbidity was low at about 0.6% (empyema,
pleuro-cutaneous fistula, transcutaneous
growth of tumour (mesothelioma)). In 64%
of the patients the thoracoscopy resulted
in treatment (pleurodesis, antituberculous
treatment, chemotherapy and peroral
steroid therapy). The medical diagnostic
thoracoscopy in local anaesthesia is a
simple, low-cost investigation with a
relatively high diagnostic accuracy, no
mortality and a low morbidity.
PMID:
9616517, UI: 98279489
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