Glycinothorax: a new complication of transurethral surgery

A 76‐year‐old woman sustained inadvertent perforation of her posterior bladder wall during transurethral resection of a bladder tumour. In the immediate postoperative period, she developed life‐threatening respiratory failure following the formation of a large, unilateral pleural effusion. After therapeutic drainage, biochemical analysis of the effusion revealed that it had a high concentration of glycine. The fluid used for intra‐ and postoperative bladder irrigation had leaked from the perforated bladder and collected in the pleural cavity. This type of hydrothorax complicating endoscopic urological surgery has not been described previously.