Fatal mediastinal compression as a late complication of surgical plombage.

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Abstract
Surgical plombage was used as a form of collapse therapy for pulmonary tuberculosis before the advent of reliable chemotherapy. A patient developed stridor, recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis, and obstruction of the superior vena cava and eventually died as a result of haemorrhage into a large intrathoracic cyst, secondary to a polystan pack inserted 38 years previously.