Pleural Effusions

Now for the serious stuff... I happen to currently have 2 patients in the hospital with pleural effusions. I'll keep you all updated on how they do over the next week.

1) 78 year old male with an atypical bilateral pneumonia pneumonia, on 3 antibiotics. He's on a respirator with persistent respiratory failure, demonstrating sepsis (high WBC, fever, positive blood cultures). He's not doing well.

2) 84 year old female with history of breast cancers s/p radical mastectomies in 1984 and 1988 (no chemo, no radiation, no hormonal rx). She presents with a right sided effusion that so far has yielded 2 liters of sero-sanguinous fluid. I stopped the thoracentesis at midnight at 2 liters so as not to make her dizzy.