Kirschner P A
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City University of New York, New York, USA.
Chest Surg Clin N Am. 1998 May;8(2):449-72.
Porous diaphragm syndromes are a group of seemingly disparate clinical symptom complexes involving a wide variety of unrelated medical specialties. However, they are linked by a common anatomical feature, a defect in the diaphragm. They usually present with thoracic symptomatology--pleural effusions, pneumothorax, hemothorax, empyema--mediated by this defect. Management of these syndromes utilizes principles of thoracic surgical practice including thoracotomy and thoracoscopy.
