Chest
Selected ReportsBilateral Pneumothorax After Percutaneous Transthoracic Needle Biopsy: Evidence for Incomplete Pleural Fusion
Section snippets
Case Report
A 58-year-old woman with a long smoking history presented to her local physician with left hemiparesis and ataxia. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging showed two right hemispheric masses, and a chest radiograph demonstrated a 2-cm spiculated nodule in the anterior segment of the right upper lobe. A transthoracic needle biopsy was scheduled to confirm the clinical impression of metastatic bronchogenic carcinoma.
Medical history was positive for rheumatoid arthritis and hypertension. Specimens from
Discussion
This case illustrates that in rare instances, the usually separate pleural cavities may communicate. Wittich and colleagues3recently described three patients with evidence of pleural cross-communication; however, all had had prior sternotomy. The authors postulated that the operative procedure disrupted normal anatomy, creating an artificial communication between right and left. Jensen and his group2 have described a case of bilateral pneumothoraces after lung biopsy in a patient whose
References (3)
Anatomy and physiology of the pleural space
Clin Chest Med
(1985)
Cited by (4)
Public health aspects of dirofilariasis in the United States
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2024, Internal MedicineSimultaneous bilateral spontaneous pneumothorax with congenital pleuro-pleural communication
2013, Journal of Thoracic DiseaseGuidelines for radiologically guided lung biopsy
2003, Thorax