Pittman J A, Dirnhuber M
Department of Anaesthesia, Southmead Hospital, Bristol, UK.
Anaesthesia. 2000 Feb;55(2):155-7. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2044.2000.055002155.x.
A 76-year-old woman sustained inadvertent perforation of her posterior bladder wall during transurethral resection of a bladder tumour. In the immediate postoperative period, she developed life-threatening respiratory failure following the formation of a large, unilateral pleural effusion. After therapeutic drainage, biochemical analysis of the effusion revealed that it had a high concentration of glycine. The fluid used for intra- and postoperative bladder irrigation had leaked from the perforated bladder and collected in the pleural cavity. This type of hydrothorax complicating endoscopic urological surgery has not been described previously.
