Abstract

ARMAS MOREDO, Karina; GARCIA RODRIGUEZ, Miguel Emilio; ACOSTA PRIETO, Sahily  and  ARMAS PEREZ, Bárbaro Agustín. Malignant pleural mesothelioma in eight patients and review of topic. Rev Cubana Cir [online]. 2016, vol.55, n.4, pp. 340-347. ISSN 1561-2945.

Several etiopathogenetic, clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of the malignant pleural mesothelioma, fearful and infrequent disease in our context, are updated. It was really impressive the case of a female health professional that was recently treated at early stage of disease and barely survived one year. The objective of this review was to raise the level of knowledge on this disease in oder to improve survival rates. To this end, eight patients with this diagnosis, who were studied and treated in "Amalia Simoni", "Manuel Ascunce Domenech", "Madame Curie" hospitals in Camaguey and in "Martin Chang Puga" in Nuevitas from 1998 to 2015 were presented. Their clinical picture, supplementary tests, diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment and final results were described. Half of them were smokers with initial small pleural effusion that made the specialists suspect the existence of the disease. There were three patients whose diagnoses surprised the physicians because they were unexpected. Survival was low and the average survival rate was 11 months, although one managed to live two years. The indicated supplementary tests were similar to those of other reports and adjusted to our setting. Treatment was updated and consistent with other series at the time of diagnosis. The casuistry in our conditions was compared to others and it was similar in terms of diagnosis, treatment and survival rates to the one shown in foreign publication. Regardless of some unavailable diagnostic and therapeutic resources, the results of the treatment agree with those of the current literature on the topic and the survival rate was undoubtedly negative.

Keywords : malignant pleural mesothelioma; diagnostic and treatment in pleural mesothelioma; pleural mesotheliomas; malignant pleural effusion; survival treatment.

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