Pleuroscopy or video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for exudative pleural effusion: a comparative overview.

ABSTRACT: Exudative pleural effusions, such as malignant and tuberculous pleural effusions, are associated with notable morbidity and mortality. Unfortunately, a significant number of these effusions will remain undiagnosed despite thoracentesis. Traditionally, closed pleural biopsies have been the next best diagnostic step, but the diagnostic yield of blind closed pleural biopsies for malignant pleural effusions is insufficient. When image-guided targeted biopsies are not possible, both pleuroscopy and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery are reasonable options for obtaining pleural biopsies, but the decision to select one procedure over the other continues to raise much debate. Pleuroscopy (aka. medical thoracoscopy, local anaesthetic thoracoscopy) is a relatively common procedure performed by int

SUBMITTER: Ali MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6688010 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature