Spontaneous pneumothorax in a patient with complex bullous lung disease after blunt trauma: a case report

The management of spontaneous pneumothorax [SP] in a patient with complex bullous lung disease may be difficult initially. We report a 32-year-old man who presented to the emergency room with head injury after blunt trauma. The patient had a clinical evidence of SP without chest trauma. He was managed initially with a chest tube but later required surgical intervention to stop the air leak

Thoracoscopy as a useful diagnostic and therapeutic procedure: an experience from a general hospital

To describe our experience arid results of thoracoscopy in the diagnosis and management of common thoracic diseases in a general hospital. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Amiri hospital, Kuwait. Patients: A total of 28 patients with pleural effusion, pneumothorax or undiagnosed interstitial lung disease. Intervention: Thoracoscopy and biopsy of the pleura, wedge excision arid pleurodesis and lung biopsy. Main Outcome And Measures: The indication for surgery, the operative time, duration of chest tube, hospital stay arid complications. The indications for thoracoscopy were pleural effusion in 24 patients, recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax in two and interstitial lung disease in two. The mean operative time was 75.5 minutes. The mean duration of chest tube was 4.6 days. The mean hospital stay was 11.8 days. The overall complication rate was 3.57%. The diagnosis for the pleural effusion arid interstitial lung disease was reached in 24/26 cases [92.3%].Thoracoscopy is safe and effective in a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in a general hospital