Open AccessSpontaneous fracture of indwelling pleural catheter
Author(s) -
Yagnik Lokesh,
Shrestha Ranjan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
respirology case reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.304
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 2051-3380
DOI - 10.1002/rcr2.365
Subject(s) - medicine , pleural effusion , malignant pleural effusion , complication , surgery , lung cancer , effusion , catheter , metastasis , cancer
Indwelling pleural catheters (IPCs) are increasingly used for the management of symptomatic malignant pleural effusion worldwide. IPCs have been documented to reduce the number of hospital bed days in patients with malignant pleural effusion and thus are often used as the preferred mode of management in fit healthy patients with good performance status. Complications related to IPCs, mainly in the form of pleural infection and needle tract metastasis, are well reported in the literature. Similarly, fracture of IPCs is a recognized complication during the process of IPC removal. We report the first ever case of spontaneous fracture of IPC in a patient with Stage IV lung cancer with malignant pleural effusion who was undergoing active chemotherapy and symptomatic management of the pleural effusion with an IPC.