TALC surgery and Fluid in the lungs - 1250923

VATS is a type of surgical approach in which the lung surgery is done through a videoscopic approach and a small portal. Pleurodesis, the procedure in which talc or another agent to produce inflammation is administered on the pleural surface, can and often is done via a VATS approach.

When the inflammation causes adhesion of the outside of the lung to the inside of the chest wall, it's kind of like filling in a pothole. It eliminates the "potential space" to fill with fluid, so that fluid is often just resorbed by the body as fast as it's being produced. If there's still a larger amount of fluid being produced than can be resorbed, you tend to see a loculated effusion, where there are pockets of fluid between scarred areas of inflammation.

-Dr. West