Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 16, 2023; 11(35): 8372-8378
Published online Dec 16, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i35.8372
Malignant pleural mesothelioma mimics thoracic empyema: A case report
Ya-Hsin Yao, Yen-Shou Kuo
Ya-Hsin Yao, Department of General Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114202, Taiwan
Yen-Shou Kuo, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114202, Taiwan
Author contributions: Yao YH and Kuo YS wrote the manuscript; Kuo YS performed the thoracoscopic operation in this case; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: After obtaining approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Tri-Service General Hospital, the study (IRB number: C202315055) was conducted following the approved protocol. The patient provided informed consent for the publication of this case report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that there is no conflict of interest to disclose.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The present study followed the rules of the guide of the CARE checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yen-Shou Kuo, MD, Surgeon, Surgical Oncologist, Teacher, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, No. 325 Section 2 Chenggong Road, Neihu District, Taipei 114202, Taiwan. geniuspipi@gmail.com
Received: August 27, 2023
Peer-review started: August 27, 2023
First decision: September 13, 2023
Revised: September 18, 2023
Accepted: December 1, 2023
Article in press: December 1, 2023
Published online: December 16, 2023
Processing time: 109 Days and 1.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) shows similar clinical symptoms and imaging features to thoracic empyema. In the present case, the final diagnosis was confirmed by the thoracoscopic surgery. This article could offer clinicians a hint to consider a diagnosis of MPM when treating thoracic empyema and consider thoracoscopic surgery for accurate diagnosis.