Application of medical thoracoscopy in 108 patients with unknown etiology pleural effusion

Objective To investigate the value of medical thoracoscopy in the diagnosis of pleural effusion of unknown etiology.Methods 108 patients with pleural effusion of unknown etiology were underwent medical thoracoscopy examinantion and biopsy for diagnosis in our hospital from 2011 to 2013.And the process,results,and safety were retrospectively analysed.Results The biopsy tissue and pathological diagnosis of 106 patients with pleural effusion were obtained,including 52 cases of tuberculous pleurisy,45 cases of malignant tumor,three cases of pneumonia with pleurisy,six cases of nonspecific inflammation.Two cases with serious pleural adhesions were failed to obtain biopsy tissue.The diagnostic positive rate was 92.6％.Two patients complicated with pneumothorax after the operation,the rest patients had no serious complications in and after the operation.Conclusions Medical thoracoscopy can be applied to diagnose the pleural effusion of unknown etiology and it is a safe method with higher diagnostic rate and clinical value. Key words: Medical thoracoscopy;  Pleural effusion ;  Etiology