Abstract
A 47-year-old woman complaining of cough and left lateral chest pain was admitted to the hospital because she was pointed out to have left lateral pleural effusion at another hospital. Thoracentesis revealed about 200 ml of bloody discharge. Chest plain x-ray film and CT scans visualized a sharp foreign body at the dorsal aspect of the left chest wall which projected into the thoracic cavity. From her previous history of receiving a wound at the same area due to a penetrated piece of glass when she fell down 8 months earlier, which was treated by sutures elsewhere, delayed traumatic hemothorax due to a piece of glass remnant was diagnosed. As for treatment, clots in the thoracic cavity were removed under thoracoscopy and then the identified piece of glass which slightly projected into the thoracic cavity was removed through an approach from the dorsal aspect.
Usually, traumatic hemothorax often occurs immediately after trauma. Delayed onset of the disease has been reported after fracture of the ribs in many cases, but in such cases the duration from receiving trauma to the onset of symptoms is one month at the longest. Since it is uncommon for the disease to occur after a long delay of 8 months like in this case, we present this case together with a review of the literature.
