Images in Clinical Medicine
Kim Eagle, M.D., Editor
Lucite-Ball Plombage
N Engl J Med 1994; 330:1723June 16, 1994
- Article
Figure 1 Lucite-Ball Plombage.
Posteroanterior and lateral chest x-ray films (Panel A and Panel B, respectively) were obtained in a 64-year-old woman who was being evaluated for an upper respiratory tract infection. The patient had been treated for tuberculosis 41 years earlier by stripping the parietal pleura from the chest wall and packing the space with inert Lucite balls (arrows). A sample of these balls, each approximately 2.5 cm (1 in.) in diameter (two thirds the size of a Ping-Pong ball), taken post mortem from another patient, is shown in Panel C. The patient has been free of tuberculosis since the plombage was carried out.
Kim Eagle, M.D.
David J. Mond, M.D.
Arfa Khan, M.D.
Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY 11042
