Rigid Medical Thoracoscopy in Undiagnosed Pleural Effusion

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Pleural effusion is one of the common manifestations of tuberculosis and malignancy in our country. If it is not diagnosed early it can increase the morbidity and mortality. Pleural fluid analysis and blind pleural biopsy may not be helpful always .With this background we started our study to assess undiagnosed cases of pleural effusion by rigid medical thoracoscopy. AIM: As only few studies are published regarding the use of rigid medical thoracoscopy in the evaluation of undiagnosed pleural effusion, our present study aims to assess its significance in it. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In our study 22 cases were selected who came to our OPD with undiagnosed pleural effusion from January 2010 to January 2011 including both sexes and different age groups. Rigid medical Thoracoscopy were done in all of them. RESULTS: Out of 22 cases, 16 were diagnosed as malignant, 3 as tubercular, 1 as chronic inflammation, 1 as non specific and in 1 case procedure was not successful. CONCLUSION: With this study we found that rigid medical Thoracoscopy is an efficient procedure for diagnosing undiagnosed pleural effusion.