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Vol.47 No.7 contents | Japanese/English |
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- Case Report -
A Case of Malignant Mesothelioma with Continuous Air Leakage
Tomoya Kono1, Masayoshi Teramachi2, Hanae Mori2, Kazuo Endo2, Masataka Hirabayashi21Molecular and Cancer Research Unit, HMRO, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan, 2Department of Respiratory Disease, Hyogo Prefectural Tsukaguchi Hospital, Japan
Background. Malignant mesothelioma sometimes accompanies pneumothorax, but there have been few reports of malignant mesothelioma with continuous air leakage. We report a patient with malignant mesothelioma who was initially recognized as having massive pleural effusion and ipsilateral pneumothorax on chest roentgenogram on a medical examination. Case. A 43-year-old woman was found to have a right pneumothorax and massive pleural effusion on chest roentgenogram. As malignant pleural mesothelioma was suspected based on her chest computed tomogram findings after pleural drainage, thoracoscopic examination was performed. Multiple tumors were seen on the parietal pleura, and air leakage was detected from many sites of rupture of the visceral pleura when the lung was inflated. Pathological diagnosis of the tumor was malignant epithelial mesothelioma, and right extrapleural pneumonectomy was performed. Pathological examinations showed pleural injury due to tumor. Despite postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the patient died of tumor recurrence 25 months postoperatively. Conclusion. We encountered a case of malignant pleural mesothelioma demonstrating continuous air leakage. It seems necessary to carefully investigate the possibility of malignant disease when pneumothorax is detected in a patient over the age of 40.
key words: Malignant mesothelioma, Pneumothorax, Operation, Multimodality therapy
Received: March 26, 2007
Accepted: October 10, 2007
JJLC 47 (7): 887-890, 2007
