الفهرس 
Chapter I: Undiagnosed Pleural EffusionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The term medical thoracoscopy can be used to describe the
diagnostic and therapeutic exploration of the pleural space carried out
by the pulmonary physician, in the endoscopy unit, mostly under local
anesthesia with or without conscious sedation. With thoracoscopy, one
can visualize the entire visceral and parietal pleura and take pleural
biopsy from suspicious sites under vision.
Forceps biopsy is the commonest used instrument to obtain
thoracoscopic specimens from suspected pleural lesions; however this
procedures may be associated with bleeding that hinder further biopsy,
additionally the decision to take biopsy could be difficult specially
when the targeted lesions are on the visceral pleura or near vascular
structure. On the other hand pleural brush could be used to obtain
pleural specimens through the medical thoracoscopy from suspected
areas either in parietal, visceral pleura or near vascular structure
safely.
The use of pleural lavage at the time of thoracoscopy would
provide a higher diagnostic yield than the cytologic analysis of the
fluid obtained at thoracentesis and could provide additional diagnostic
information to the thoracoscopic biopsy.