DOI: 10.36347/sasjm.2021.v07i03.007

Pages: 96-103

Serofibrinous pleurisy is a very common pathology in pulmonology with multiple etiologies. We report a descriptive retrospective study about 1471 cases of serofibrinous pleurisy collected from the respiratory diseases department of the Ibn Rochd University Hospital Center in Casablanca, spanning 7 years from 2013 to 2019, the main objective of which is to determine the etiological profile of serofibrinous pleurisy. These were 853 men (58%) versus 618 women (42%) with an average age of 50 years (16 to 95 years). Active smoking and a history of neoplasia were found in 34% of cases each, a history of tuberculosis was noted in 20% of cases and connectivitis in 31 patients. The clinical symptomatology was dominated by chest pain (87%). Fluid effusion syndrome was found in 86% of cases. Chest x-ray showed pleurisy of moderate abundance in 71%, high abundance in 17% and low abundance in 12% of cases. The etiological diagnosis was confirmed by a pleural biopsy puncture in 65% of cases and by thoracoscopy in 7% of cases. Etiologies were dominated by tuberculosis in 56% of cases followed by malignant etiology in 31% and systemic disease in 3% of cases. The etiology was not determined in 9% of cases. Treatment depends on the etiology. The course was good in 64% of cases. Through this study, we are emphasizing the value of pleural biopsy puncture in the etiological diagnosis of serofibrinous pleurisy and on the frequency of the tuberculous origin which remains the most frequent etiology in our context, followed by the neoplastic origin.