Medical Thoracoscopy Using a Flexirigid Thoracoscope in the Diagnosis of Pleural Effusion of Unknown Cause

Utility of Semirigid Thoracoscopy in the Diagnosis of Pleural Effusions

“…Some procedures were carried out at the bedside. 11 The thoracoscope used in all studies was LTF (160 or 240; Olympus, Tokyo, Japan). Most studies used SRT with a 27-cm-long shaft (22 cm rigid and 5 cm flexible) with an outer diameter of 7 mm.…”

“…Index test was described in sufficient detail to permit its replication in all but one study. 11 Munavvar et al 10 …”

“…McLean et al 8 did not report results of 8 procedures. Physicians carrying out MT had special training or experience in thoracoscopy, but it was not clear in 1 study 11. …”

Narrow‐band imaging thoracoscopy in pleural amyloidosis

“…This is the first report to describe detailed thoracoscopic findings of pleural amyloidosis using pleuroscopy with NBI. Pleuroscopy under local anaesthesia is a useful procedure to obtain pathological specimens with minimal invasiveness, but it is difficult to determine the optimal biopsy site . We previously reported that NBI was useful in the selection of optimal biopsy sites by assessing vascular patterns in malignant lesions .…”

“…Conventional thoracoscopy is a useful procedure to obtain pathological specimens, but it is an invasive procedure compared with thoracentesis. We have been using flexi‐rigid thoracoscopy under local anaesthesia for patients with undiagnosed pleural effusions for many years . We present a novel case of diagnosed pleural amyloidosis by flexi‐rigid thoracoscope under local anaesthesia.…”