Abstract

MAINERI-HIDALGO, José Alberto; PUTVINSKY, Vladimir  and  MAINIERI-BREEDY, Giovanna. Mesotelioma pleural en Costa Rica. Acta méd. costarric [online]. 2006, vol.48, n.1, pp.24-29. ISSN 0001-6002.

After reviewing the pathology service archives of the 3 national general hospitals of the Costarrican Social Security Health System, 29 cases of pleural mesothelioma were found between 1972 and 2002. The incidence rate in 2002 was 1 case per 2 million; there were 15 females and 14 males, with a mean age of 54 years. Twenty cases presented with pleural effusion being dyspnea, chest pain, cough, fever and weight loss the most frequent symptoms. The disease was detected in all the cases because of an abnormal chest X-rayo The method used to obtain tissue for histological diagnosis was thoracotomy for 15 cases, pleural biopsy in 8, thoracoscopy in 4 and autopsy in 2. The histological diagnosis in 16 cases was fibrous mesothelioma, 10 malignant and 6 benign, 12 were epithelial (all malignant) and 2 were malignant mixed mesotheliomas. The treatment in all the benign cases was surgical resection and none recurred. Two of the malignant lesions were resected, 1 had an extrapleural pneumonectomy along with pericardial and diaphragmatic resection, but the survival was not better than the rest of the malignant cases, with an average survival rate for all of them of only 6 months. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy showed no additional benefit.

Keywords : mesothelioma; pleural mesothelioma; pleural tumors.