title: Advances in pleuroscopy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the technique of pleuroscopy, its clinical uses such as diagnosis of exudative pleural effusion, treatment of pleural infection, treatment of pneumothorax, and diagnosis and pleurodesis of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Also to describe the newer techniques developed such as minothoracoscopy, semirigid thoracoscopy, narrow band imaging pleuroscopy, infrared pleuroscopy, autofluorescence pleuroscopy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched the pubmed the last decade for publications with the key words pleuroscopy, medical thoracoscopy, pneumothorax and pleuroscopy, malignant pleural mesothelioma, minothoracoscopy, semirigid thoracoscopy, autofluorescence pleuroscopy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medical thoracoscopy is the method of choice for investigation of the undiagnosed exudative pleural effusions. Newer techniques, such as narrow band imaging thoracoscopy, infrared thoracoscopy, autofluorescence thoracoscopy are offering a promising future for medical thoracoscopy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Medical School of Alexandroupolis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.
authors.forename: Stavros
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Anevlavis
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Medical School of Alexandroupolis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.
authors.forename: Marios E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Froudarakis
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000628:therapy; D008654:Mesothelioma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000628:therapy; D000086002:Mesothelioma, Malignant; D062048:Narrow Band Imaging / Q000379:methods; D061848:Optical Imaging / Q000379:methods; D010995:Pleural Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D010996:Pleural Effusion / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy; D018700:Pleurodesis / Q000379:methods*; D011030:Pneumothorax / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000628:therapy; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D013906:Thoracoscopy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods
keywords: advanced techniques; malignant pleural mesothelioma; medical thoracoscopy; pleurodesis; pleuroscopy; pneumothorax