The New England Journal of Medicine
e-mail icon  FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |    Advanced Search
Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe
 
Images in Clinical Medicine
PreviousPrevious
Volume 356:2312 May 31, 2007 Number 22
NextNext

"Staging" Pneumothorax

 

This Article
- PDF

Tools and Services
-Add to Personal Archive
-Add to Citation Manager
-Notify a Friend
-E-mail When Cited
-E-mail When Letters Appear

More Information
-PubMed Citation
Figure 1
View larger version (54K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]
Get Slide
 
A 63-year-old man was found to have a new mass in the right lung on chest radiography. Computed tomography (CT) showed a soft-tissue density in the medial aspect of the right upper lobe, closely associated with the paratracheal soft tissues (Panel A, arrow). The tracheal lumen appeared normal on bronchoscopic examination. A needle biopsy of the mass resulted in a pneumothorax. Repeat CT imaging with the patient in a right decubitus position revealed that the mass had moved with the lung and had separated completely from the trachea and mediastinum (Panel B, arrow). The patient underwent resection of the right upper lobe; pathological examination showed an adenocarcinoma that did not involve the visceral pleura. He remained well, with no evidence of recurrence, 1 year later. In this case, an unintended pneumothorax provided useful staging information.

 

Robert C. Hoch, M.D.
Minnesota Lung Center
Minneapolis, MN 55407
roberthoch{at}gmail.com




HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  TERMS OF USE  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org

Comments and questions? Please contact us.

The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2009 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.