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Updated: Feb 5, 2026
Local Anesthetic Thoracoscopy for Undiagnosed Pleural Effusion
Published on: November 10, 2023
Pediatric pleural tuberculosis
Gulsum Iclal Bayhan1, Fuat Sayir2, Gonul Tanir3
1Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Yildirim Beyazit University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
Background:
Pleural tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis is sometimes controversial because the microbiologic confirmation ratio is very low in pleural fluid. There are few pediatric pleural TB case series in the literature.
Methods:
We retrospectively evaluated our TB cases below 18 years of age and extracted pleural TB cases.
Results:
Seven cases with pleural TB were identified. About 42.9% of the patients had isolated pleural TB whereas 57.1% of the patients had accompanying pulmonary TB. Lymphocytic pleural effusion and increased adenosine deaminase (ADA) (>40 U/L) level are found in 85.7% of the patients. Six patients had uncomplicated effusion (transudate) according to Light's criteria and one had complicated effusion (exudate). Lung decortication was needed in three patients. All patients were given 6 months anti-TB medication and recovered completely.
Conclusion:
In the lymphocyte-predominant pleural effusion, an increased ADA level highly supported TB disease. The complicated effusion (exudate) in pleural TB is not rule; uncomplicated effusion (transudate) could be seen.
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