Re-expansion pulmonary oedema (REPO) is a rare complication of pleural fluid thoracocentesis and has been associated with a high mortality rate. There is limited evidence to inform on its most effective management. We present two cases of large volume thoracocentesis resulting in acute respiratory decompensation that was treated by reintroducing the drained pleural fluid back into the pleural cavity. We also present a review of the literature specifically assessing the reported incidence rate of REPO after pleural fluid drainage. In both of our cases, symptoms and signs of respiratory instability were promptly reversed on reintroduction of the drained pleural fluid into the patient's pleural space-a therapy we have termed 'rapid pleural space re-expansion'. This was not associated with any short-term adverse outcomes. The occurrence of REPO is a rare event with most cohort studies reporting an incidence of between 0% and 1%.

The large proportion of newly diagnosed hypertensive patients presenting with end organ signs of prolonged uncontrolled hypertension suggests that there are significant numbers of undiagnosed Black patients in the community, suggesting that we should more actively conduct test for hypertension and its complications when we encounter these patients, who constitute a growing part of the populations in Europe.

We describe the case of a 50-year-old woman presenting to our acute medicine department with generalised non-specific symptoms on a background of HIV managed on triple therapy (tenofovir, lamivudine and zidovudine). On admission, she was noted to be acidotic with proteinuria, glycosuria, hypophosphataemia and generalised body pain, and was diagnosed with Fanconi's renotubular syndrome secondary to tenofovir. It was also noted that she had elevated liver dysfunction markers, and an MRI of the liver revealed a focal stricture near the ampulla of Vater, resulting in a diagnosis of AIDS cholangiopathy. These two diagnoses are rare complications of HIV, and the presence of both these pathologies in a single patient has never been reported in the literature before, and we therefore believe that this case is the first of its kind.