Abstract
Hemothorax is a frequent clinical situation often associated with chest injury or with iatrogenic lesions. Spontaneous hemothorax is uncommon and among its cause may include coagulation disorders, pleural, pulmonary or vascular pathology.
Diagnostics is based on radiography or ultrasound and thoracentesis which may be also therapeutic solution. The majority of hemothoraxes can be managed non-operatively but hemodynamic instability, the volume of evacuated blood and persisting blood loss or persisting hemothorax require surgery.
A surgical approach may vary from open thoracotomy to rapidly developing minimally invasive methods - video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and videothoracoscopy (VTS).