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A DIFFERENT APPLICATION METHOD OF TALC PLEURODESIS FOR THE TREATMENT OF PERSISTENT AIR LEAK
Author(s) -
Kilic Dalokay,
Findikcioglu Alper,
Hatipoglu Ahmet
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
anz journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.426
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 1445-1433
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.2006.03850.x
Subject(s) - medicine , pleurodesis , pneumothorax , surgery , mediastinal shift , empyema , chest tube , leak , talc , anesthesia , lung , materials science , environmental engineering , engineering , composite material
Persistent air leak is a serious problem that may cause empyema, hypoxia, respiratory insufficiency, and other life‐threatening complications. Chemical pleurodesis may be carried out for the treatment of persistent air leak if the lung is fully expanded. However, the standard method of chemical pleurodesis entails clamping the chest tube for a period of time after instillation of the agent. In patients with massive air leak, this would result in a tension pneumothorax. Therefore, standard chemical pleurodesis for persistent air leak is not an appropriate treatment for these patients. In this study, we carried out talc pleurodesis in six patients using an inverted U‐shaped chest tube elevated to 60 cm that did not result in tension pneumothorax and mediastinal shift. No recurrence was observed during a mean follow up of 16.2 months.