Ultrasonic pleural debridement of empyema
Nakamura, H.; Taniguchi, Y.; Makihara, K.; Ohgi, S.
Annals of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Official Journal of the Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Asia 7(1): 62-64
2001
ISSN/ISBN: 1341-1098 PMID: 11343571 Document Number: 539015
Thoracic decortication is a common procedure for empyema. However, effective dissection without injuring the lung parenchyma is sometimes difficult. We introduce a new technique using an ultrasonic surgical unit (USUTM) to search the dissection plane and simultaneously perform pleural debridement and irrigation with minimal injury of the lung parenchyma. USUTM was used on 5 patients with acute empyema with fibrino-purulent phase and good clinical course was achieved. This procedure facilitates effective pleural debridement under either thoracoscopy or conventional thoracotomy.