Advanced medical thoracoscopy-pleuroscopy procedures

Abstract

One century after the Swedish physician Hanz-Christian Jacobaeus introduced a cystoscope into the pleural cavity of a patient with pleural tuberculosis, thoracoscopy, the first interventional technique of modern pulmonology, has become an important tool in the diagnosis, treatment, and research of pleural disease. The development of new devices such as the single-port rigid thoracoscope and the flex-rigid pleuroscope helped a lot to spread the technique over the world. Its application as diagnostic and therapeutic technique has increased dramatically during the last decade. Also, the possibility to use new tools through the pleuroscopes, initially designed to flexible endoscopy, such as autofluoroscopy and narrow band imaging, has enlarged the field of research in pleural disease. The aim of this chapter is to develop all advances, performed the recent years in medical thoracoscopy – pleuroscopy.