| Chest drain |
A small plastic tube that is put into the chest to drain fluid away. It is a temporary drain and normally stays in place for a small number of days |
| General Anaesthetic |
Patients are put to sleep using medications so they are completely asleep during a procedure. |
| Indwelling pleural catheter |
A soft and flexible drain that can inserted into the fluid with a one way tap on the end. This drain can stay in place wrapped underneath a dressing for several months, sometimes longer. To relieve breathlessness a patient simply takes of the dressing and connects the drain to a bottle which turns the tap on and fluid drains away. |
| Malignancy |
Malignancy is a another word for cancer |
| Malignant pleural effusion |
When a pleural effusion is caused by cancer |
| Mesothelioma |
A cancer of the pleura, often caused by exposure to asbestos many decades previously |
| Pleura |
Very thin linings (like clingfilm) that cover the outer part of the lung and the inside of the ribcage |
| Pleural aspiration |
When a pleural fluid is removed from the chest using a needle and syringe |
| Pleural effusion |
When more fluid than normal collects between the two pleural linings |
| Pleural Fluid |
Fluid that is located between the two pleural layers between the lung and the ribcage |
| Pleurodesis |
Using a special glue to stick the lung to the inside of the rib cage after the fluid has been drained away in order to stop the fluid from building up again. |
| Sedation |
Medication that is given trough the vein to make patients sleepy, comfortable and relaxed during a procedure. Patients are still awake though. |
| Septated pleural effusion |
When solid strands or webs form in pleural fluid that divides the fluid into small pockets |
| Talc |
This is the special glue used for a ‘pleurodesis’. A white powder that can mixed with water in a paste or sprayed into the chest during a thoracoscopy as a powder. |
| Thoracoscopy |
Also called ‘medical thoracoscopy’ and ‘local anaesthetic thoracoscopy’. This is procedure performed under sedation to drain a pleural effusion and spray a glue (‘talc) into the chest to stick the lung to the rib cage and stop fluid from building up again. |
| Trapped lung |
This lung is unable to re-expand after the fluid has been drained away from the chest and there is a gap between the lung and the rib cage |
