How is Hydrothorax diagnosis?

Diagnosis and Treatment The diagnosis of hepatic hydrothorax is usually easily established from the clinical picture. If doubt exists, the diagnosis can be confirmed by scanning the chest after technitium-99m sulfur colloid is injected into the peritoneal cavity.

What is usually caused by in focal bacterial infection?

S. aureus, Candida sp., and streptococci were the most frequent causes. In 20 of 48 cases, hepatic abscesses coexisted with splenic abscess.

When do you need a thoracentesis?

Thoracentesis should be performed diagnostically whenever the excessive fluid is of unknown etiology. It can be performed therapeutically when the volume of fluid is causing significant clinical symptoms. Typically, diagnostic thoracentesis is a small volume (single 20cc to 30cc syringe).

How do you treat hepatic hydrothorax?

The management of hepatic hydrothorax is difficult. The initial treatment should be a low-salt diet plus diuretics. The best diuretic regimen is probably the combination of furosemide and spironolactone (7). However, about 25% of patients are refractory to this regiment, and additional therapy is indicated (1).

What is hepatic hydrothorax?

Hepatic hydrothorax refers to the presence of a pleural effusion (usually >500 mL) in a patient with cirrhosis who does not have other reasons to have a pleural effusion (eg, cardiac, pulmonary, or pleural disease) [1-3]. Hepatic hydrothorax occurs in approximately 5 to 15 percent of patients with cirrhosis.

What is an example of a focal infection?

The most common examples of focal infection were tonsillitis, upper respiratory tract infections, sinusitis, dental caries and genitourinary tract infections.

What is the difference between local infection and focal infection?

In present medical consensus, a focal infection is a localized infection, often asymptomatic, that causes disease elsewhere in the host, but focal infections are fairly infrequent and limited to fairly uncommon diseases.