THE ROLE OF MEDICAL FIBEROPTIC THORACOSCOPY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF PLEURAL EFFUSIONS

Abstract

Thoracoscopy has been present in the literature since the early

1900s. It has been widely practiced in its early days- for the surgical resection of adhesions for collapse therapy- until the era of the antituberculous treatment started in the 1940s. Thoracoscopy can be performed under local anesthesia and conscious sedation without the need for general anesthesia and double lumen intubation and can be applied to a multitude of indications encompassing most of the areas of the pulmonary specialty. In this study, thirty patients with exudative pleural effusions of undetermined etiology were enrolled in the period between August 1999 and September 2000, in Cairo University •hospitals. Patients who have had an inconclusive initial thoracentesis and/or non-specific closed pleural biopsy were included in the study. They were further subjected to a second thoracentesis, a closed pleural biopsy and thoracoscopic exploration of the pleural space.