Blunt traumatic tracheobronchial injury is rare, but can be potentially life-threatening. It accounts for only 0.5%-2% of all trauma cases. Patients may present with non-specific signs and symptoms, requiring a high index of suspicion with accurate diagnosis and prompt treatment. A 26-year-old female was brought into the emergency department after sustained a blunt trauma to the chest from a high impact motor vehicle accident. She presented with signs of respiratory distress and extensive subcutaneous emphysema from the chest up to the neck. Her airway was secured and chest drain was inserted for right sided pneumothorax. CT of the neck and thorax revealed a collapsed right middle lung lobe with a massive pneumothorax, raising the suspicion of a right middle lobe bronchus injury. Diagnosis was confirmed by bronchoscopy. In view of the difficulty in maintaining her ventilation and persistent pneumothorax with a massive air leak, immediate right thoracotomy via posterolateral approach was performed. The right middle lobar bronchus tear was repaired. There were no intra- or post-operative complications. She made an uneventful recovery. She was asymptomatic at her first month follow-up. A repeated chest X-ray showed expanded lungs. Details of the case including clinical presentation, imaging and management were discussed with an emphasis on the early uses of bronchoscopy in case of suspected blunt traumatic tracheobronchial injury. A review of the current literature of tracheobronchial injury management was presented.
Humans ; Female ; Adult ; Pneumothorax/surgery* ; Bronchi/injuries* ; Wounds, Nonpenetrating/diagnosis* ; Bronchoscopy ; Trachea/injuries*

BACKGROUND: At present, robotic surgery is widely used in thoracic surgery, which has higher maneuverability, precision, and stability, especially for small space complex operations and reconstructive surgery. The advantages of robotic lung segment resection under full orifice artificial pneumothorax are obvious. METHODS: Based on a large number of clinical practices, we established a set of surgical methods for 4-arm robotic lung segment resection under a port-only artificial pneumothorax. 98 cases of robotic lung segment resection were performed with this method from January 2019 to August 2022. The clinical experience was summarized. RESULTS: Robotic lung segment resection under port-only artificial pneumothorax has obvious advantages in the anatomy of lung segment vessels and bronchi. It is characterized by less bleeding, shorter operation time, adequate exposure, and flexible operation. CONCLUSIONS This surgical model we propose optimizes the operation mode and technique of lung segment resection, makes each step procedural, reduces collateral damage, and is easy to learn and master, which is believed to cure more lung cancer patients with less trauma.
Humans ; Pneumothorax, Artificial ; Robotic Surgical Procedures ; Pneumonectomy ; Lung Neoplasms/surgery* ; Robotics

Fiberoptic-guided intubation (FOI) has been an indispensable component of difficult airway management especially in instances where anatomical limitations precluded use of conventional direct laryngoscopy. Its use, however, is not without risks.

This paper presents a 4-year-old female with a limited mouth opening scheduled for an elective oral commissurotomy who developed signs and symptoms of tension pneumothorax immediately following a successful fiberoptic nasotracheal intubation. Passive insufflation of high-flow oxygen through a flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope preloaded with a tight-fitting endotracheal tube led to accumulation of air. This caused lung hyperinflation and subsequently, pneumothorax.

BACKGROUND: The localization of pulmonary nodules is related to whether the lesions can be found and removed accurately and quickly. It is an important link for the success of minimally invasive video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). This study investigated the feasibility of medical glue localization under VATS video-assisted thoracoscopic computed tomography (CT) guidance for single pulmonary nodule and more than two pulmonary nodules, and compared with the accuracy and safety of single nodule localization. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of patients who underwent unilateral CT-guided medical glue localization before VATS from November 2018 to March 2021 were performed, the patients was divided into multiple pulmonary nodules group (localized nodules ≥2) and single pulmonary nodule group according to the number of localized nodules. The localization time, success rate and complication rate of the two groups were compared. RESULTS: There were 126 nodules in the two groups, including 62 in single pulmonary nodule group and 64 in multiple pulmonary nodules group. The average single nodule localization time was (13.23±4.5) min in single pulmonary nodule group and (10.52±2.8) min in multiple pulmonary nodules group, the difference between the two groups is statistically significant (P<0.05). The localization success rate of single pulmonary nodule group and multiple pulmonary nodules group were 100% and 98.4% separately, the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P>0.05). All VATS were successfully completed after localization. The incidence of pneumothorax was higher in multiple pulmonary nodules group than in single pulmonary nodule group (P=0.07). CONCLUSIONS Compared with localization of single lung nodule, unilateral CT-guided medical glue localization for multiple pulmonary nodules before VATS is also feasible and accuracy, it is worthy of clinical application. But the higher rate of pneumothorax should be paid attention to.
Humans ; Lung Neoplasms/surgery* ; Multiple Pulmonary Nodules/surgery* ; Pneumothorax ; Retrospective Studies ; Solitary Pulmonary Nodule/surgery* ; Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Arthroscopic superior capsular reconstruction is an innovative technique for the irreparable rotator cuff tears, but spontaneous pneumothorax after surgery is very rare. The present case was a 66-year-old female with irreparable rotator cuff tears of the right shoulder, treated with the arthroscopic shoulder superior capsular reconstruction. The general anesthesia and operation went smoothly, but the patient experienced stuffiness in the chest and shortness of breath after recovery from anesthesia. Thoracic CT scans showed spontaneous pneumothorax in the right side, which was successfully treated by the conservative treatments (oxygen therapy) according to multidisciplinary team. Prompt and accurate early-stage diagnosis is necessary in controlling postoperative complications and standardized treatment is the key to relieve the suffering. Spontaneous pneumothorax after arthroscopic shoulder surgery has been rarely reported in previous literatures.
Aged ; Arthroscopy/methods* ; Female ; Humans ; Pneumothorax/surgery* ; Range of Motion, Articular ; Rotator Cuff Injuries/surgery* ; Shoulder ; Shoulder Joint ; Treatment Outcome

Physical traumas are tragic and multifaceted injuries that suddenly threaten life. Although it is the third most common cause of death in all age groups, one out of four trauma patients die due to thoracic injury or its complications. Blunt injuries constitute the majority of chest trauma. This indicates the importance of chest trauma among all traumas. Blunt chest trauma is usually caused by motor vehicle accident, falling from height, blunt instrument injury and physical assault. As a result of chest trauma, many injuries may occur, such as pulmonary injuries, and these require urgent intervention. Chest wall and pulmonary injuries range from rib fractures to flail chest, pneumothorax to hemothorax and pulmonary contusion to tracheobronchial injuries. Following these injuries, patients may present with a simple dyspnea or even respiratory arrest. For such patient, it is important to understand the treatment logic and to take a multidisciplinary approach to treat the pulmonary and chest wall injuries. This is because only 10% of thoracic trauma patients require surgical operation and the remaining 90% can be treated with simple methods such as appropriate airway, oxygen support, maneuvers, volume support and tube thoracostomy. Adequate pain control in chest trauma is sometimes the most basic and best treatment. With definite diagnosis, the morbidity and mortality can be significantly reduced by simple treatment methods.
Flail Chest ; therapy ; Hemothorax ; therapy ; Humans ; Lung Injury ; therapy ; Pain Management ; Pneumothorax ; therapy ; Rib Fractures ; therapy ; Thoracic Injuries ; therapy ; Thoracic Wall ; injuries ; Wounds, Nonpenetrating ; therapy

pneumothorax after right diaphragm resection, and pancreatic fistula after splenectomy with distal pancreatectomy in the 2 periods were 2 of 34 (6.0%), 1 of 33 (3.0%), and 3 of 15 (20.0%) patients in the initial learning period, and 12 of 147 (8.2%), 1 of 118 (0.8%), and 11 of 84 (13.1%) patients in the post-learning period, respectively. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups (p=0.270, p=0.440, p=0.520, respectively).CONCLUSION: Bowel resection and upper abdominal surgery can be performed safely by gynecologic oncologists.]]>
Anastomotic Leak ; Certification ; Cytoreduction Surgical Procedures ; Diaphragm ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Incidence ; Learning ; Obstetrics ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Pancreatectomy ; Pancreatic Fistula ; Pleural Effusion ; Pneumothorax ; Postoperative Complications ; Splenectomy

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the complications of percutaneous transthoracic needle biopsy using CT-based imaging modalities for needle guidance in comparison with fluoroscopy in a large retrospective cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was approved by multiple Institutional Review Boards and the requirement for informed consent was waived. We retrospectively included 10568 biopsies from eight referral hospitals from 2010 through 2014. In univariate and multivariate logistic analyses, 3 CT-based guidance modalities (CT, CT fluoroscopy, and cone-beam CT) were compared with fluoroscopy in terms of the risk of pneumothorax, pneumothorax requiring chest tube insertion, and hemoptysis, with adjustment for other risk factors. RESULTS: Pneumothorax occurred in 2298 of the 10568 biopsies (21.7%). Tube insertion was required after 316 biopsies (3.0%), and hemoptysis occurred in 550 cases (5.2%). In the multivariate analysis, pneumothorax was more frequently detected with CT {odds ratio (OR), 2.752 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.325–3.258), p < 0.001}, CT fluoroscopy (OR, 1.440 [95% CI, 1.176–1.762], p < 0.001), and cone-beam CT (OR, 2.906 [95% CI, 2.235–3.779], p < 0.001), but no significant relationship was found for pneumothorax requiring chest tube insertion (p = 0.497, p = 0.222, and p = 0.216, respectively). The incidence of hemoptysis was significantly lower under CT (OR, 0.348 [95% CI, 0.247–0.491], p < 0.001), CT fluoroscopy (OR, 0.594 [95% CI, 0.419–0.843], p = 0.004), and cone-beam CT (OR, 0.479 [95% CI, 0.317–0.724], p < 0.001) guidance. CONCLUSION: Hemoptysis occurred less frequently with CT-based guidance modalities in comparison with fluoroscopy. Although pneumothorax requiring chest tube insertion showed a similar incidence, pneumothorax was more frequently detected using CT-based guidance modalities.
Biopsy ; Biopsy, Needle ; Chest Tubes ; Cohort Studies ; Cone-Beam Computed Tomography ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Fluoroscopy ; Hemoptysis ; Image-Guided Biopsy ; Incidence ; Informed Consent ; Lung Neoplasms ; Multivariate Analysis ; Needles ; Pneumothorax ; Referral and Consultation ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the learning curve for C-arm cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) virtual navigation-guided percutaneous transthoracic needle biopsy (PTNB) and to determine the amount of experience needed to develop appropriate skills for this procedure using cumulative summation (CUSUM). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 2042 CBCT virtual navigation-guided PTNBs performed by 7 novice operators between March 2011 and December 2014. Learning curves for CBCT virtual navigation-guided PTNB with respect to its diagnostic performance and the occurrence of biopsy-related pneumothorax were analyzed using standard and risk-adjusted CUSUM (RA-CUSUM). Acceptable failure rates were determined as 0.06 for diagnostic failure and 0.25 for PTNB-related pneumothorax. RESULTS: Standard CUSUM indicated that 6 of the 7 operators achieved an acceptable diagnostic failure rate after a median of 105 PTNB procedures (95% confidence interval [CI], 14–240), and 6 of the operators achieved acceptable pneumothorax occurrence rate after a median of 79 PTNB procedures (95% CI, 27–155). RA-CUSUM showed that 93 (95% CI, 39–142) and 80 (95% CI, 38–127) PTNB procedures were required to achieve acceptable diagnostic performance and pneumothorax occurrence, respectively. CONCLUSION: The novice operators' skills in performing CBCT virtual navigation-guided PTNBs improved with increasing experience over a wide range of learning periods.
Biopsy, Needle ; Cone-Beam Computed Tomography ; Learning Curve ; Learning ; Lung ; Needles ; Pneumothorax ; Retrospective Studies

BACKGROUND: The relationship between the size of bullae and pneumothorax recurrence is controversial. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the role of blebs or bullae in predicting ipsilateral recurrence in young patients experiencing their first episode of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) who underwent conservative treatment. METHODS: A total of 299 cases of first-episode PSP were analyzed. The status of blebs or bullae was reviewed on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). The dystrophic severity score (DSS; range, 0 to 6 points) was calculated based on HRCT. RESULTS: The 5-year recurrence rate was 38.2%. In univariate analysis, age (<20 years), body mass index (<20 kg/m2), a unilateral lesion, and intermediate risk (DSS 4 and 5) were associated with recurrence. Sex; smoking history; and the presence, number, and maximal size of blebs or bullae were not related to recurrence. In Cox regression, age and intermediate risk were independent risk factors for recurrence. High risk (DDS 6) was not an independent risk factor. CONCLUSION: The presence, number, and size of blebs or bullae did not affect ipsilateral recurrence. DSS failed to show a positive correlation between severity and recurrence. The decision to perform surgery in patients experiencing their first episode of PSP should not be determined by the severity of blebs and bullae.
Blister ; Body Mass Index ; Humans ; Pneumothorax ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Smoke ; Smoking