Background: Over 1 million patients are hospitalized in the United States yearly for pneumonia, of which 40% develop parapneumonic effusion. Left untreated, these effusions can progress to complex effusions requiring more invasive treatment, including tube thoracostomy and surgical decortication, increasing hospital length of stay and overall morbidity. In patients with complex parapneumonic effusion, intrapleural lytic [...]

Case Presentation: A 30 year old male with no past medical history presented with progressive shortness of breath and chest pain. He stated that two weeks ago, he removed a wooden splinter from his left finger. The finger then developed swelling and erythema that progressed to painful drainage in association with worsening of presenting symptoms. [...]

Case Presentation: A 73-year-old male presented to the Emergency Department for a 2-month history of progressive dyspnea on exertion, orthopnea, and bilateral lower extremity edema on a background of long-standing COPD with active tobacco use. Exam was relevant for sarcopenia, mild tachypnea, decreased breath sounds in the bases, no wheezing or JVD, 2-3 + bilateral [...]

Case Presentation: A 26-year-old female with a past medical history of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) presented to the hospital with a two-month history of progressive abdominal distension and nausea. On physical examination, she had decreased breath sounds at the bilateral lung bases and massive ascites. Laboratory tests revealed normocytic anemia, mild hyponatremia, slightly elevated creatinine [...]

Case Presentation: An 85-year-old female presented to the emergency department in August of this year with acute chest pain and shortness of breath. The patient was afebrile, with a heart rate of 97 bpm, a respiratory rate of 24 breaths per minute, and a blood pressure of 191/81 mmHg. Labs showed hemoglobin of 6.6 g/dL [...]

Case Presentation: A 36-year-old female with history of recurrent pleural effusion presented with worsening shortness of breath. One year prior, she was treated for presumed aspiration pneumonia after a moderate left pleural effusion and left lower lobe consolidation were noted on imaging. Initial ultrasound-guided thoracentesis revealed transudative pleural fluid, resolving her symptoms. Despite repeated therapeutic [...]