• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.226-229
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• 1994

VATS is now used by many thoracic surgeons and in various anatomic locations such as lung parenchyme, pleura and mediastinum, etc. VATS of mediastinal masses has special characteristics compared to that of other diseases. Those are no positional changes of the mass during collapse of the lung and close proximity of the mass to major vascular structures, nerves and other vital organs. From 1992. July to 1993. August, 10 mediastinal masses were treated with video assisted thoracoscopy. There were five males and five females, ages ranged from 11 years to 65 years with average 37.7 17.7 years old. Of the 10 patients, 4 were bronchogenic cysts, 2 were teratoma, and the others were thymoma, neurilemmoma, pericardial cyst, and thymic cyst. Needle aspiration was done in large cysts and the working thoracotomy[or utility thoracotomy] was done in large solid masses for the purpose of easy dissection, easy handling and easy delivery of the mass. The average operation time were 155.6 6.8 minutes and the duration of air leakage were 1 2.2 days. The duration of the chest tube drainage were 3.3 2.6 days. The lengths of the postoperative hospitalization were 5.1 2.7 days which were shorter than those of 12 mediastinal masses treated with conventional thoracotomy during the same periods [p<0.05]. There was 1 patient converted to thoracotomy because of a bleeding at innominate vein. 3 postoperative complications were occured. Those were persistent air leakage for 7 days, diaphragmatic palsy and hoarseness which were recovered within 1 month. We conclude that mediastinal mass can be excised with video assisted thoracoscopy and the posthospitalization is reduced. But careful attention is required for avoiding injury to major vascular structures, nerves, and other vital organs.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.1149-1153
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• 1997

Unilateral reexpansion pulmonary edema(RPE) is generally considered a rare complication occurring when a chronically atelectatic lung is rapidly reexpanded by tube thoracostomy or thoracentesis. It can also take place when the lung collapse is of short duration or when the lung is reexpanded without intrapleural sucti n. We experienced a case of RPE following surgical resection in mediastinal thymic cyst A 26 year old female patient suffered from long-standing atelectasis of the right lung due to a huge mediastinal cyst that was misrecognized as tuberculous pleural effusion. Empyema developed after iatrogenic rupture of mediastinal cyst by pig-tailed tube thoracostomy. We successfally managed the ruptured mediastinal thymic cyst, empyema and postoperatively developed RPE following reexpansion of the collapsed lung. The patient was treated with drugs and mechanical ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure for RPE. The remainder of her hospital course was uneventful.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.626-629
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• 2002

Cavernous hemangioma in mediastinum is a rare tumor. A 13 year old girl was referred becaused of abnormal mediastinal shadow in simple chest X-ray. Chest CT scan revealed a somewhat inhomogenous cystic legion arround the whole length of SVC. Surgical excision was done through the right posterolateral thorachotomy. The pathology was confirmed as cavernous hemangioma.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.303-307
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• 1995

We experenced 18 patients with surgically treated thymoma from January 1986 to December 1993. There were 13 male and 5 female ranged from 23 to 69 years of age. Among them Myasthenia gravis was present in 8 patients (44%) The predominant cell type was lymphocytic(11 patients), followed by epithelial (3) and mixed (4), and had no value in predicting prognosis. Treatment consisted of complete resection in 15 patients, partial resection in 2 patients and 1 patient was performed biopsy. Only, and then adjuvant radiation therapy was done in 7 patients and 3 patients needed adjuvant chemotherapy. Invasion of the adjacent tissue in thymoma was the most improtant prognostic value. There were 6 non-invasive tumors and 12 invasive tumors. Two patients with invasive thymomas resulted in death and one of 6 patients with non-invasive thymomas died during follow up ranged from 25 day to 60 months. The causes of death were myasthenic crisis in 1 patient, C. N. S. problem in 1 patient and pulmonary & mediastinal metastasis in 1 patient.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.525-527
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• 2000

Subarachnoid-pleural fistula after routine thoracotomy is a rare complication but a very serious problem. Twenty one cases have been reported in the literature. We report a care of subarchnoid-pleural fistula that dveloped after the esecation of posterior mediastinal neurogenic tumor. The patient presented with large amount of clear pleural fluid with mild headache and dizziness. Surgical intervention following a trial of conservative therapy was undertaken because we strongly suspected subarachnoid-pleural fistula. A dural tear was found at the level of resected intercostal nerve root. The dura was closed by way of direct suture and fibrin glue. In this case, the recognition of subarachnoid-pleural fistula formation is difficult because the patient had not presented any neurologic deficit.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.221-225
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• 1983

Morgagni, in 1760, 1st. described the findings of substernal herniation of abdominal contents into the thoracic cavity, based upon 25 postmortem dissections. Herniation through the foramen of Morgagni is the rarest occurrence of the congenital diaphragmatic hernias and is usually a few symptoms. With the increasing use of routine chest roentgenogram & the need to exclude the possibility of a mediastinal neoplasm, most such cases are brought to the attention of a surgeon. We had experienced 2 cases of Morgagni hernia, which one caused a simple mechanical intestinal obstruction & diagnosed as acute appendicitis with perforation & another one was diagnosed as mediastinal lipoma on routine chest X-ray film at arrival due to traffic accident. We had performed left paramedian abdominal incision as misdiagnosis of acute appendicitis with perforation and repair of the defect and returned transverse colon & stomach into abdominal cavity in one patient. And in another patient, we preferred to approach through right thoracotomy incision and then left upper paramedian abdominal incision and returned the omentum into the abdominal cavity. The post-operative courses were in uneventful and we report these cases and review and discuss the literatures.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 1995

To determine the role of mediastinoscopy in the preoperative staging of the primary lung cancer, we studied 23 patients from January 1993 to December 1993 and compared the results of mediastinoscopy and computed tomographic scanning with the findings at thoracotomy. Mediastinoscopy was performed in 14 patients when they had larger than 10mm mediastinal nodes at computed tomographic scanning. Six of them were found to have metastatic nodes. Nine patients, who had negative computed tomographic scanning and negative mediastinoscopic results,underwent thoracotomy. One of them was found to have a metastatic mediastinal lymph node. When results from both series of patients were compared, the sensitivity and specificity of computed tomographic scanning showed 83.3% and 47.1% respectively with an accuracy of 56.5%. The results of mediastinoscopy showed that the sensitivity was 85.7%, the specificity was 100% and the accuracy was 95.7%.Because of the low accuracy rate of computed tomographic scanning, a more routine use of mediastinoscopy seems to be justified.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.76-80
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• 1994

A solitary fibrous tumor in the pleura has been reported occasionally, but extremely rare in themediastinum. The histogenesis of this tumor has been still in controverse, but recent studies paid attention to it a mesenchymal origin by the immunohistochemical and ultrastructural bases. A few cases, reported in the literature, suggest that the mediastinal solitary fibrous tumor occurs more commonly in adult and shows slightly higher incidence in women. Its aggressive behavior such as recurrence rate and distant metastasis, is more prominant than reported in solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura. No single histologic feature allows an assumption definite prognosis. Surgical resection of this tumor is usually curative although the recurrence or distant metastasis are reported in about half of the patients. This report is a case of solitary fibrous tumor in the mediastinum in a 16-year-old female patient.She underwent surgical resection and her postoperative result was satisfactory.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.689-694
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• 1994

A retrospective analysis was performed on 36 patients with primary cysts and tumors of the mediastinum seen at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery of Maryknoll Hospital from January 1983 to December 1993. There were 21 female and 15 male patients in the study. Ages ranges from 2 years to 72 years, with a mean of 34.7. There were 9 malignant tumors and 27 benign tumors.Thymic neoplasms were the most common. For the whole series, 29 of the patients had tumors in the anterior mediastinum. There appears to be an in6rease in tumors in the anterior compartment. There were 30 symptomatic patients in our series. Of the patients with malignant disease, 89 % were symptomatic. All of benign tumors were completely removed and malignant tumors were treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy after operation. There were 9[27.3 %] postoperative complications. There was no postoperative mortality. Follow-up was available on 27 patients. There was no recurrence, malignant degeneration, or growth of any tumor. It is hoped that careful evaluation and aggressive treatment of mediastinal tumors will continue to provide improvement in the prognosis for these patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.349-355
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• 2004

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with invasion of mediastinal structures is classified as stage IIIB, and has been considered surgically unresectable However, in a selected group of these patients, better results after surgical resection compared to non-surgical group have been reported. The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of surgical resection in treatment of mediastinal T4 NSCLC. Material and Method: Among 1067 patients who underwent surgical intervention for non-small cell lung cancer from Aug 1987 to Dec 2001 in Korea cancer center hospital, 82 patients had an invasion of T4 mediastinal structures (7.7%). Resection was possible in 63patients (63/82 resectability 76.8%). Their medical records in Data Base were reviewed, and they were followed up completely until Jun 2002. Surgical results and prognostic factors of NSCLC invading mediastinal structures were evaluated retrospectively. Result Lung cancer was resected completely in 52 patients (63.4%, 52/82). Lung resection was lobectomy (or more) in 14, pneumonectomy in 49. The mediastinal structures invaded by primary tumor were great vessel (61.9%), heart (19%), vagus nerve (9.5%), esophagus (7.9%), and vertebral body (7.9%). Nodal status was N0 in 11, N1 in 24, and N2 in 28 (44.4%). Neoadjuvant therapy was done in 6 (9.5%, 5 chemotherapy, 1 radiotherapy), and adjuvant therapy was added in 44 (69.8%, 15 chemotherapy, 29 radiotherapy) in resection group (n=63). Complication was occurred in 23 (31.7%), and operative mortality was 9.5% in resection group. Median and 5 year overall survival including operative mortality was 18.1 months and 21.7% in resection group (n=63), 6.2months and 0% in exploration only group (n=19, p=.001), 39 months and 32.9% in N2 (-) resection group (n=35), and 8.8 months and 8.6% in N2 (+) resection group (n=28, p=.007). The difference of overall survival by mediastinal structure was not significant. Conclusion: The operative risk of NSCLC invading mediastinal structures was high but acceptable, and long-term result of resection was favorable in selected group. Aggressive resection is recommended in well selected pateints with good performace and especially N2 (-) NSCLC with mediastinal invasion.