• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.2
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• pp.371-381
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• 2021

Purpose To evaluate the usefulness and effectiveness of bronchial occluders in the treatment of postoperative bronchopleural fistula (BPF). Materials and Methods The subjects of the study were six out of seven postoperative BPF patients who underwent surgery due to tuberculosis or lung cancer between 2009 and 2019. Each patient had a bronchial occluder inserted to treat BPF that occurred after surgery. Of the six patients, five had lung cancers and one had tuberculosis. Five were male and one was female; their ages ranged from 59 to 74 years, with an average of 69 years. The diagnosis of BPF was based on findings from bronchoscopy and CT, and treatment was initiated approximately 1 to 2 weeks after diagnosis. The technical and clinical success of the bronchial occluders in the treatment of BPF was evaluated. The study assessed the postoperative clinical effects of the occluders, survival duration, and additional treatments. Results All six patients were successfully treated. Clinical success was achieved in five patients, while partial clinical success was achieved in one; there was no clinical failure. No complications during the migration of the device or device perforations were observed. Two patients were diagnosed with BPF by CT, while four were diagnosed by bronchoscopy. Lobectomy, bilobectomy, and pneumonectomy were performed on two patients each. The periods between surgery and diagnosis ranged from 1 to 34 months; the average was 10 months. Four patients (59-103 days; an average of 80.5 days) died and two (313 days, 3331 days) survived. The causes of death were aggravation of the underlying disease (n = 2), pulmonary edema and pleural effusion (n = 1), and pneumonia (n = 1). Additional catheter drainage was performed in one patient, and a chest tube was maintained in two patients. Conclusion Bronchial occluders are useful and effective in the treatment of BPF after pulmonary resection.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.190-194
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• 1977

An analysis of 503 pulmonary resection is presented, with the following points of interest; 1] By using a stapling device, the operation time is shortened, more lung tissue can be saved, and post-operative complications are fewer. 2] By comparison with a previous series, postoperative drainage from the chest is decreased when the stapling device is used. In the present series 82% of patients has less than 500 cc of drainage post-operatively. Average required whole blood replacement was less than 800 cc in this series of patients. 3] Only 13 patients, or 2.6% developed a bronchopleural fistula, and only 8 patients, or 1.5% developed post-operative empyema when the stapling device was used. 4] Because of the decreased air leaks when the stapling device is used, the anterior and posterior tubes can be removed sooner. 5] With careful preservation of lung tissue and paralysis of the phrenic nerve, post operative `dead space" is not a problem after the pulmonary lobectomy. Thus thoracoplasty is not necessary to eliminate "dead space".

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.183-189
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• 1977

There has been an alarming rise in the incidence of carcinoma of the lung in the world. The increase of the disease has been greater in men than in women, but even in women the rate has doubled in the last 20 years. During the 20 year period 1957 through 1976, 33 women with proven primary carcinoma of the lung were treated at Department of Thoracic Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital. During the period of survey, 170 consecutive cases of primary bronchogenic carcinoma were encountered in men, a male to female ratio of 5.2: 1. Ages of patients with bronchogenic carcinoma in women ranged from twenty-seven to sixty-eight years and most of them were over 40 years of age. The duration between the onset of symptoms and admission was about 9 months and the most common complaints were cough [66.6%], chest pain [60.6%], hemoptysis [48.4%] and dyspnea [45.4%]. Bronchogenic carcinoma developed most frequently in the upper lobes, and twelve [36.3%] of cases were squamous cell type, nine [27.2%] were anaplastic cell type, six [18.2%] were adenocarcinoma, one was alveolar cell type and five were unclassified type, in contrast to the usual predominence of adenocarcinoma among women in other reports. One half of the patients were inoperable and resection was feasible in only 24.2 per cent of the patients. There was no operative mortality but one case had bronchopleural fistula after pneumonectomy. Most patients with bronchogenic carcinoma in women were from large cities. Cigarette smoking appeared to be related to the occurrence of the squamous cell and anaplastic cell carcinoma because all heavy smokers had squamous cell or anaplastic cell carcinoma.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.231-235
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• 1990

Segmental resection or wedge resection of the lung and direct cutting across of bronchi frequently results in postoperative airleaks or bronchopleural fistula in some cases. Many methods have been devised to handle air leak problems by oversuturing the raw edges, the application of pleural onlay flaps, the use of cautery or tissue adhesives, but these still has not solved the problem of air leaking from raw surfaces of the lung with only partial successful we have tried the use of histoacryl to closure the raw surface of the resected lung and compared it’s results with of the closure with chromic catgut sutures in cats from May 1989 to Jan. 1990 at the department of the thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, Yonsei University, College of Medicine. Ninety lobe of the lungs were used in this study and forty nine of which have been divided segmentally and closed with histoacryl on the raw surfaces. Forty one of which have been divided segmentally and closed with sutures using chromic catgut for control. There were air leakages in twelve cases among 49 cases with applying histoacryl and airleak were in two cases among 12 cases with reapply histoacryl, But there were air leak in two cases among 41 cases with sutures using chromic catgut and airleak were in one case among with resutures using chromic catgut.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.544-547
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• 1997

We have experienced a case of pleural aspergillosis. A 50 year old female complained of malaise, anorexia, coughing with sputum, and right sided pleuritic chest pain of two weeks' duration. About ten years ago, she had been treated for pulmonary tuberculosis with medication. Chest radiography showed right pyopneumothorax with cavitation in the rig t upper lung and Chest computed topography revealed right loculated pyopneumothorax with cavity formation suggesting bronchopleural fistula. Decortication and wedge resection with pleurectomy were performed. The postoperative course was satisfactory and has been in good condition up to now. Pleural aspergillosis is a very rare and potentially life-threatening disease, but we have had good results without significant complications by treatment with systemic antifungal drugs and surgical operation.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.65-70
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• 1987

Empyema thoracis following pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, trauma and surgical procedures continues to be a source of major morbidity and mortality. We retrospectively reviewed the hospital records of 330 patients [child:87, adult243] treated for empyema thoracis at Catholic Medical Center between 1964 and 1986. The causes of empyema in these patients were as follows: pneumonia [C***:66%, A***:30%], pulmonary tuberculosis [C:2%, A:20%], lung abscess [C:3%, A:5%], postoperative complication [C:0%, A:13%], trauma [C:1%, A:4%] and unknown origin [C:23%, A:17%]. Three patients in this series died of sepsis from necrotizing pneumonia. Staphylococcus [29.3%], Streptococcus [8.8%], E. coli [8%], Mycobacterium tuberculosis [7.9%], Klebsiella [7.4%], Pseudomonas [6.4%], Bacteroides [3.4%] were the organisms most commonly isolated. Bacterial isolates were single in 68.3%, multiple 7.5% and absent 24.2%. The type of organism did not correlate with severity of disease or eventual requirement for closed thoracotomy drainage, open thoracotomy drainage [Modified Eloesser*s procedure], thoracoplasty, decortication or pleuropneumonectomy. Successful methods of treatment included aspiration in 44%, tube thoracotomy in 66%, open thoracotomy drainage in 98.7%, thoracoplasty in 98%, decortication in 96% and pleuropneumonectomy in 73%. Initial mode of management in empyema thoracis are thoracentesis and closed thoracotomy drainage. If the initial management was failed, we performed another surgical procedures. Before 1973, we manage with Schede`s thoracoplasty in the postpneumonectomy empyema patients. But thoracoplasty, with or without the use of muscle flaps, is a hazardous operation in the poor-risk patients. The permanent, open thoracotomy drainage is a relatively minor operation which is well tolerated even by cachexic, septic patients. It controls infection, and sometimes results in the bronchopleural fistula closing spontaneously.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.536-543
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• 1987

The Fontan procedure was physiological correction which was initially applied to tricuspid atresia. We had used the modified Fontan operation in 8 cases at National Medical Center, Seoul, from Aug. 1984 to Oct. 1986. Age range was 20 months to 15 years [mean: 9 years] and male: female ratio was 5:3. 5 patients had tricuspid atresia [lb: 2 cases, Ic: 1 case, lib: 1 case, & llc: 1 case], 2 Patients had univentricular heart of left ventricular type, and one patient had transposition of great arteries with complete endocardial cushion defect. The operative principle was direct anastomosis between right atrium and pulmonary artery, whether main pulmonary artery or right pulmonary artery without any conduits. Postoperatively all patients needed high central venous pressure for adequate hemodynamic status in both survival [20-24 CmH2O] and mortality groups [20-24 CmH2O]. The fatal complications were as follows: empyema with bronchopleural fistula [1 case], bleeding tendency & brain damage [1 case], low cardiac output syndrome & acute renal failure [2 cases], and right to left shunt of unknown origin [1 case]. There were 5 hospital deaths; 3 of 5 tricuspid atresia patients, 1 of 2 univentricular heart patients, and 1 of 1 transposition of great arteries with complete endocar4ial cushion defect patient. The overall mortality was 62.5%. 3 survivors were nearly compatible with Choussat & Fontan criteria. Thus appropriate patient selection and experienced surgical technique were required for good results.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.73-78
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• 2000

Background: this study was designed to estimate whether specific risk factors could increase the postoperative complication rate of pneumonectomy for chronic complicated inf-lammatory lung disease. Material and Method: Eighty-five patients underwent pneumon-ectomy for chronic complicated inflammatory lung disease(tuberculosis, 67 ; bronchiecasis 11; aspergio- losis, 4; others, 3) between January 1991 and August 1998. We performed a univariated statistical analysis to identify preoperative and intraoperative risk factors associated with postoperative complications, Result: There was no operative mortality. There were a total of 18 postoperative complications(22.2%) Bronchopleural fistula(BPF) and empyema occurred in 5(5.9%) and 2(2.4%) respectively. General complication rate was significantly higher in patients with right-sided pneumonectomy(p=.029) extrapleural pneu-monectomy(p=.009) and intraoperative pleural spillage due to cavity or lesion perforation (p=.004). The prevalence of BPF and empyema was higher in patients with right sided pneumonectomy(p=.007) extrapleural pneumonectomy(p=.015) and intraoperative pl- eural spillage due to cavity or lesion perforation(p=.003) which is as the same results as gen-eral complication rate. Conclusion: The postoperative complication rate of pneumone-ctomy for chronic complicated lung disease is accptably low. But it is increase in patients with right sided pneumonectomy extrapleural pneumonectomy and intraoperative pleural spillage due to cavity or lesion perforation. therefore more careful and meticulous intra-operatve management are needed in right sided extrapleural pneumonectomy without intra- pleural spillage.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.180-183
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• 2004

We report a case of a patient with lung cancer, which invaded the left atrium and pericardium. Right middle and lower lobectomy was performed with the use of the extracorporeal circulation. Postoperative pathologic examination revealed the stage of IIIB (T4N1MO). Although the postoperative clinical course was complicated by acute localized right sided pulmonary edema and the bronchopleural fistula, the patient recovered smoothly after the procedure of omentopexy with pedicled graft of greater omentum in closing the BPF. As of August 2003, he has been followed up for 6 years and he is healthy without any evidence of recurrence. We could not find any report concerning lung cancer resection using cardiopulmonary bypass in Korean literature and believe this is the first report, especially with long-term survival.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.637-644
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• 1992

The incidence of thoracic empyema has been reduced with the advent of antimicrobial agents. But, there are remained many significant problems in the management of thoracic empyema because of the empyema associated with bronchopleural fistula, other complications, This is a clinical analysis of 76 cases of thoracic empyema who had been treated from August 1975 to July 1991 in the Chest Surgery Department, Chung-Ang University Hospital. This report dealed with the incidence, etiology and symptoms, duration of hospital stay, therapeutic methods and review of literatures in the aspect of thoracic empyema, The results were as follows: 1. Predominance of male [3 : 1] and right side [1.5 : 1] were recorded. 2. The main symptom was the chest pain [55%], dyspnea[36%], fever[33%], cough [23%] and others. 3, The most common predisposing causatic diseases were pulmonary tuberculosis[33%] and pneumonia[31%], but also uncertain cases were 15%.4. Searching for the causatic organisms, there were not-identified[49%], streptoccocci [17%], staphylococci[12%], mixed infection[12%], AFB bacilli[7%]. 5. The range of hospital stay was from 6 to 146 days and the average duration was 29.4 days, 6. The results were good as the methods of closed thoracostomy[52%], decortication [23%], thoracentesis[15%], rib resection and drainage[4%], open drainage[4%], pleuropneumonectomy [4%]. 7. The serious complications or mortality didn`t developed.