HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Prakash, D. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Prakash, D. Related Collections Pleura

Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2003;23:255-256
© 2003 Elsevier Science NL

Letter to the Editor

Reply to Maggi et al.

Division of Thoracic Surgery, Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride G75 8RG, UK

Received 25 October 2002; received in revised form 25 October 2002; accepted 28 October 2002.

Key Words: Malignant pleural mesothelioma • Diagnosis

I am grateful to Dr Maggi and his co-workers for their interest in our paper on the management of malignant pleural mesothelioma, and they have raised three important questions.

(1) I am sorry that we have never had the opportunity of seeing an early case of mesothelioma which has not involved the visceral pleura, and note the suggestion that such patients may be adequately treated with decortication/pleurectomy without resecting the underlying lung.

(2) We did use thoracoscopy for biopsy and found that although it did give the answer in many cases, it still left us with a number of patients where the histological diagnosis was equivocal. We believe that an unequivocal diagnosis is essential, not only to get the patient the compensation that he or she deserves, but also before embarking on major surgical resection procedures.

(3) We have not used laparoscopy to diagnosis sub-diaphragmatic disease and we have not needed to, but I have no doubt that when peritoneal involvement is suspected and patient is otherwise fit for radical surgery, laparoscopy would be the simplest and best way to confirm sub-diaphragmatic spread.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Prakash, D. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Prakash, D. Related Collections Pleura