Patient presentation
A 15-year-old female was transferred to our hospital with pleural
effusion symptomatology along with respiratory distress (RD) which had
occurred on multiple occasions. Her respiratory distress could have been
relieved only by repetitive pleural tapping as much as 36 times for the
last three years at the sequence of every four weeks before the actual
transfer. She come from a rural setting in the East of DR Congo and
residing in an informal settlement. Her medical history acknowledged
that she was born healthy to non-consanguineous parents, the sixth of
eight healthy children. She apparently started developing the symptoms 3
years prior to the transfer with an increasing shortness of breath (SB)
requiring medical assistance and incapacitated her to pursue studies and
to accomplish ordinary activities. She had then been twice on six months
of anti-tuberculosis drugs first line regimen and had completed the
treatment six months before the transfer. Our clinical assessment
confirmed a woody note and a silent at auscultation on the left thorax.
The right thorax presented a normal vesicular breath sound. The chest
x-ray and the CT-Scan revealed a giant mediastinal masse with a
collapsed left lung and consolidation.