| REVIEW ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2018 | Volume
: 7
| Issue : 1 | Page : 1-4 |
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Black Pleural Effusion
Surya S Palakuru, Praveen Vijhani, Sujith V Cherian
Department of Internal Medicine, Divisions of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Sujith V Cherian
Department of Internal Medicine, Divisions of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6431 Fannin Street, Houston, Texas 77030
USA
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | 2 |
DOI: 10.4103/rcm.rcm_24_17
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Pleural effusions are common in clinical practice. In general, the diagnostic approach starts with thoracentesis. Serous (yellow) and blood tinged (reddish) pleural effusions are the most common types of pleural fluid at thoracentesis. Black colored pleural effusions are an extremely rare entity and knowledge regarding this entity is limited to case reports. A thorough systemic search on PubMed database was done looking at all reported cases of black pleural effusion. Broadly, dividing black pleural effusion based on etiology, the causes are as follows: (1) infectious – especially fungal – Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus oryzae, (2) malignancy -metastatic melanoma and primary lung cancers, (3) pancreaticopleural fistula, and (4) miscellaneous causes-including crack cocaine use, rheumatoid pleurisy, and charcoal containing empyema. Treatment of these effusions involves treatment of the underlying cause. Black pleural effusions are very rare entities with a limited differential, which the treating clinician should consider when encountered in clinical practice.
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