Thoracoplasty: By no means an obsolete procedure

Abstract

After the advent of chemotherapy for pulmonary tuberculosis, the operation of thoracoplasty became rare in the western world. However, this phenomenon was not seen in countries like India. Between July 1992 and June 1993, we performed thoracoplasty in 39 patients. Indications of surgey were tubercular empyema (25 patients), pyogenic empyema (9 patients), postoperative empyema with bronchopleural fistula (3 patients), drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (1 patient) and recurrent haemoptysis (1 patient). Successful outcome in the form of control of sepsis, closure of bronchopleural fistula, sputum conversion and control of haemoptysis could be achieved in all the cases. There was no mortality in the entire series. We conclude that with the persisting problem of pulmonary tuberculosis in developing countries, thoracoplasty is still an operation of continued relevance.