• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.859-862
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• 2007

A hemangioma at a cardiac valve leaflet is a rare finding. There are only five reported cases in the medical literature and no prior case reported in Korea. A previously healthy 45-year-old woman presented with an acute episode of numbness in the left side of the face and hand. Although no definite abnormalities were found on the neurological examination and testing the echocardiography revealed an echogenic mass in the anterior mitral valve leaflet. The tumor was excised en bloc from the leaflet and the defect was repaired with an autologous pericardial patch. Pathology examination confirmed the mass to be a hemangioma of the valve leaflet. Here we report this case and review the medical literature.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.98-101
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• 2008

Once it is diagnosed, immediate surgical extirpation is desirable for treating left ventricle myxoma that's accompanied with stenosis of the left ventricle outflow tract. This is because this condition may potentially induce fatal complications such as cerebral infarction or myocardial infarction that's triggered by myxoma embolus, or even sudden death due to coronary malperfusion. An 18-year-old male with the chief complaint of NYHA class II exertional dyspnea was found to have a $4{\times}3\;cm^2$ sized mass on transthoracic ultrasonography, which was shown to move down the left ventricle outflow tract on the systolic phase. The mass was immediately extirpated by incision of the left ventricle; the mass was finally diagnosed as a myxoma. The patient was discharged on at the 10th day postoperatively without any complications. On the 22-month follow-up observation made at the out-patient clinic after discharge, there have been no noticeable, significant changes seen on physical examination or the cardiac ultrasonography.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.542-545
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• 2010

Extramedullary hematopoiesis is a common compensatory mechanism of chronic anemia, but an asymptomatic posterior mediastinal mass is rarely diagnosed as an extramedullary hematopoiesis after surgical resection. The differential from neurogenic tumors is important, but fine needle aspiration biopsy is not recommended because of the difficulty of approach and risk of bleeding. Although diagnosis and treatment can involve resection via thoracotomy, video-assisted thoracic surgery may also be a useful strategy. We performed video-assisted thoracic surgery on a 59-year-old man for posterior mediastinal extramedullary hematopoiesis, with no evidence of recurrence or related hematologic diseases.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.959-962
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• 2004

Pleuropulmonary blastoma is a rare malignant neoplasm which originates from either the lungs or pleura. Pleuropulmonary blastoma usually develops in the first decade of life, mostly younger than 5 years old and shows aggressive biological behavior. Pleuropulmonary blastoma is discriminated from classic pulmonary blastoma of adulthood by its morphological features like primitive mesenchymal and sarcomatous component without carcinomatous portions. To our knowledge, report of pleuropulmonary blastoma in adulthood is very rare. Our case support the possibility that primitive neoplasm recognized as pediatric tumors can develop in adulthood. We report a case of surgical experience of pleuropulmonary blastoma which developed in 21 years old man with literature review.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.221-223
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• 2010

Bronchogenic cysts are usually located in the pulmonary parenchyma or in the mediastinum. When bronchogenic cysts are located in the mediastinum, they are usually near the bronchus or esophagus, and rarely located in the retroperitoneal space. It is difficult to differentiate between bronchogenic cysts and benign cysts prior to surgert. We report here on a patient for who had a mass in the retroperitoneum, with the preoperative diagnosis being a benign neurogenic tumor. Via left open thoracotomy, pathologic reports revealed that the mass was a bronchogenic cyst. We report here on the case of a bronchogenic cyst that was located in the retroperitoneal space of the diaphragm.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.212-215
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• 1998

Pulmonary mucinous cystic tumor of borderline malignancy is very rare and distinguished from bronchogenic cyst or adenocarcinoma of bronchoalveolar type. We present the case of a 63-year-old woman with a right lower lobe mass, found by chest radiographs. The preoperative diagnosis was made as bronchoalveolar cancer by percutaneous needle aspiration of mass. Right lower lobectomy and lymph node dissections were performed. The lobectomy specimen contained variable sized multilocular cystic mucous masses, filled with mucus. Microscopically, the cystic masses are lined with tall columnar mucinous epithelium but some area contains focal cellular atypism and bronchoalveolar cancer like foci. This foci are lack of cellular atypism consistent with bronchoalveolar cancer cell. After lobectomy the patient has remained free from recurrence and distant metastasis for following 12 months period. Pulmonary mucinous cystic tumor of borderline malignancy appears to have a favorable prognosis and should be distinguished from other lung neoplasms.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.812-816
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• 2002

Pericardial effusions result from various conditions such as inflammation, malignancies, open heart surgery and uremia. Recently, video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has been used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in the management of pericardial effusion and intrathoracic lesions due to its ability to provide outstanding visibility of intrathoracic structures with less pain, superior cosmetic effects, and shorter hospital stay Material and Method: From April 1995 to October 2001, 51 patients received pericardial window operation via either thoracoscopic(Group A, n＝37, m:f＝18:19, mean age＝56.4 yrs)or thoracotomy approach(Group B, n＝14, m:f＝8:6, mean age=58.4 yrs). Result: In group A, the operation time, duration of chest tube insertion, recurrence rate of pericardial effusion, and postoperative hospital stay were 61.2 minutes, 9.3 days, 2.7%, 16.2 days, respectively while in group B these values were 58.4 minutes, 12.2 days, 7.1, and 17.3 days. The number of injections for pain control in group A were 4.2 times, whereas in group B it was 6.3 times. Although there was a tendency for the mean hospital stay and duration of chest tube insertion to be shorter in group A than in group B, these differences did not reach statistical significance. There was also no significant difference in the operation time and recurrence rate between the two groups. Conclusion: The safety and effectiveness of VATS in the management of pericardial effusion is comparable to the open thoracotomy method. It allows for a shorter hospital stay, duration of chest tube insertion, lesser postoperative pain and a smaller skin incision.