Diagnostic Value of Thoracoscopy in Undiagnosed Exudative Pleural Effusion
He Hongxia
Chen Tianming
Lu Qing
Abstract：Objective To explore the value of thoracoscopy in the diagnosis of undiagnosed exudative pleural ef-fusion. Methods 47 patients with undiagnosed exudative pleural effusion were examined by thoracoscopy. Multiple punch biopsies were used in suspicious lesions. The correlation between thoracoscopic manifestations and pathological results was investigated. The safety of operation was evaluated. Results The pathology of 43 cases(91. 5% )were fi-nally confirmed by thoracoscopy,including 17 cases of tuberculous pleurisy(36. 2% ),19 cases of lung cancer with pleural metastasis(40. 4% ),5 cases of malignant pleural mesothelioma(10. 6% ),2 case of breast cancer with pleural metastases(4. 3% ),4 cases of chronic nonspecific inflammation(8. 5% ). Conclusion Thoracoscopy has an impor-tant value in the diagnosis of patients with undiagnosed exudative pleural effusions. Therefore,it is a simple and safe method with few complications in clinical practice.
Keywords：ThoracoscopyExudative pleural effusionDiagnosis
Publication Date：2015-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：2( 188-189 )