General thoracic and cardiovascular surgery
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Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Mar 2010
Case ReportsEmergency video-assisted thoracoscopic foreign body removal and decortication of lung after chest trauma.
Video-assisted thoracoscopy can be a useful tool in selected chest trauma patients for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. A metallic foreign body, embedded in peripheral lung parenchyma, was removed successfully with blood clot evacuation and limited decortication of lung in a hemodynamically stable 10-year-old patient using a video-assisted thoracoscopic technique.
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Chylothorax is usually a complication of thoracic surgery procedures. Over a 5-year period we encountered three cases of chylothorax following abdominal surgery performed in general surgery units. The initial effusions, not lactescent, were ascribed to a pleural reaction that sometimes is observed during the postoperative period after abdominal surgery. ⋯ A video-assisted thoracoscopy procedure was undertaken, but the extensive pleural effusions, caused in part by the delay in the diagnosis, prevented the exact localization of the duct and its closure. Talc pleurodesis was successfully employed in all patients. Even after abdominal surgery, a persistent pleural effusion should always induce us to suspect a chylothorax.
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Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Feb 2010
New device for intraoperative graft assessment: HyperEye charge-coupled device camera system.
Our institution developed a new color chargecoupled device (CCD) camera system (HyperEye system) for intraoperative indocyanine green (ICG) angiography. The device consists of a combination of custommade optical filters and an ultra-high-sensitive CCD image sensor with non-Bayer color filter array (i.e., HyperEye technology), which can detect simultaneously color and near-infrared (NIR) rays from 380 to 1200 nm. Here, we demonstrate intraoperative graft assessment using the HyperEye system. ⋯ The HyperEye system can visualize any structural and functional failures. Our findings suggest that this device could become a useful tool for intraoperative graft assessment.
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Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Feb 2010
Comment Letter Case ReportsEsophageal patch tracheoplasty for congenital tracheal stenosis.
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Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg · Feb 2010
Case ReportsMediastinal teratoma complicated with acute mediastinitis.
We report a case of a mediastinal teratoma associated with acute mediastinitis that required an emergency operation. These tumors cause a variety of complications, but reports of acute mediastinitis are rare. A 24-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for complaints of chest pain and fever and was subsequently diagnosed as having an anterior mediastinal tumor. ⋯ The histopathologic diagnosis was a mature teratoma that included pancreatic tissue. Although the apparent site of the rupture was not obvious, there was a wide area of acute inflammation in the mediastinal adipose tissue. The patient did well and was discharged from the hospital without major complications.