[Clinical assessment of various treatments for tracheal stenosis].

The paper deals with the management of cicatricial stenoses of the trachea, which is a topical problem of modern thoracic surgery. Surgical techniques and endoscopic operations aimed at expanding and maintaining the lumen of the airways have been employed. Original types of surgical operations and new endoscopic tools are proposed.

[Surgical tactics in pleural empyema with regard to the use of a carbon dioxide laser and argon plasma]. / Khirurgicheskaia taktika pri émpieme plevry s uchetom ispol'zovaniia uglekislotnogo lazera i argonovoi plazmy.

The authors analyze the experience gained in treating 30 patients with acute and 23 with chronic pleural empyema. The management policy identified the following points. Laser thoracoscopic necrectomy and empyemic cavity sanitation are indicated in acute destructive pulmonitis. A combination of temporary bronchial occlusion and laser treatment of the empyemic cavity and bronchopleural fistula should be performed after debridement of a destructive pulmonitis area from necrotic tissues. Radical treatment of chronic pleural empyema should be better conducted in the early periods by employing a plasma scalpel at all the stages of surgical intervention for hemostasis, aerostasis and sterilization of the operation field.

[The thoracoscopic use of the CO2 laser in the combined treatment of pleural empyema]. / Torakoskopicheskoe primenenie CO2-lazera v kompleksnom lechenii émpiemy plevry.

A new method for treating acute pneumothorax with a bronchopleural fistula was experimentally developed and clinically tested. It is based on thoracoscopic use of CO2 laser radiation. The laser beam energy is employed for evaporation of necrotic tissues in the area of pulmonary destruction, "welding" of the bronchopulmonary fistulae, and general irradiation of the empyema cavity with a defocused beam. Nineteen patients with various disease duration were treated. In 16 patients the bronchial fistulae and the empyema cavity were eliminated and the lung re-expanded. The purulent inflammation in the pleural cavity was acute in these cases.