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PubMed1992

[Chylothorax in the neonatal period].

The data of 11 infants with chylothorax in the neonatal period, seven with congenital chylothorax and 4 infants with iatrogenic chylothorax are reported. Chylothorax in the neonatal period may cause birth asphyxia and serious respiratory problems. Among the infants with congenital chylothorax diagnosis can be established before birth by ultrasound technique, followed by optimal resuscitation to prevent asphyxia. In most of the cases, conservative treatment with continuous drainage and total parenteral nutrition is sufficient.

Cardiac Surgical Procedures↗
PubMed1991

[Chylothorax developed after cardiac surgery in children: a report of three cases].

Two children developed chylothorax after median sternotomy and a third child developed chylothorax after a Blalock-Taussig operation under the left thoracotomy. The first patient had a closure of ASD and a pulmonary valvotomy and then later developed chylothorax. The thoracic duct was ligated 10 cm just above the diaphragm at 28 days after the first operation because of unsuccessful conservative treatment. The second patient had a Blalock-Taussig operation and the third patient had radical operation for ECD and both developed chylothorax. The latter two patients were cured with conservative treatments such as the administration of Medium Chain Triglyceride or total parenteral nutrition with thoracic drainage. Children who developed chylothorax after cardiac surgery should be treated conservatively for at least the early postoperative period when circulatory and/or respiratory conditions are still unstable.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1989

[Surgical management of chylothorax: a report of 65 cases].

Sixty-five cases of chylothorax treated at the Shanghai Chest Hospital over the past 30 years are reviewed. The causes of chylothorax in this series were mainly traumatic and postoperative (47/65). Two cases were associated with chylopericardium and another 2 with chylous sputum. The authors believe that untreated chylothorax is a serious, often life-threatening entity and that the following principles are applicable in its management: (1) If daily chyle loss exceeds 1000 ml in adults with no tendency of subsidence, surgery is indicated especially in the effusion may lead to disastrous nutritional and immunologic consequences; (2) Ligation of the thoracic duct is effective by a mass ligature encircling all tissues between the azygos vein and the aorta. The most favorable site for ligation is immediately above the diaphragm. Over dissection of the thoracic duct should be avoided; (3) The proper surgical approach is on the side of the effusion in unilateral chylothorax, but right side approach is preferred in case of bilateral chylothorax or when the origin of chylous fistula is unknown; (4) Pleurodesis is indicated for those cases if the duct is not obviously present or chyle comes from the pleural lymphatics. Concentrated glucose solution with or without Talc suspension is recommendable.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Chylothorax in 34 dogs.

Thirty-four dogs with chylothorax were studied retrospectively. In 24 dogs, chylothorax appeared to be idiopathic, with only 10 dogs having evidence of neoplasia or trauma. Rupture of the thoracic duct secondary to trauma appeared to be a much less common cause for the development of a chylous pleural effusion than that reported previously. The Afghan Hound was the breed most commonly affected, comprising 37.5% of the dogs in the idiopathic category and 26.5% of all dogs with chylothorax. A clear correlation between the cause of chylothorax and age was not apparent, and gender and neutering appeared to have no relationship to the development of chylothorax in the dog.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Chylothorax: an assessment of current surgical management.

The development of chylothorax is a serious and often life-threatening clinical entity. Optimal management of this problem has not been well defined to date. We reviewed our experience with chylothorax in patients of all ages during the past 10 years. Ages ranged from 2 days to 69 years. The etiologies were traumatic in 17 and congenital or idiopathic in three. Six patients (five infants) were treated nonoperatively with either repeated thoracenteses or chest tube drainage. Fourteen patients (11 infants) underwent operative treatment: transthoracic thoracic duct ligation (five patients), pleuroperitoneal shunting (seven), pleuroperitoneal shunting combined with reoperation on a patient with congenital heart disease (one), and reoperation alone on a patient with congenital heart disease (one). Duration of preoperative therapy ranged from 9 days to 2 months (average 3.3 weeks). Five of six (83.3%) patients treated nonoperatively died. Of the surgically treated group, only two of 14 (14.3%) died, and 11 of the 12 survivors had resolution of the chylothorax and immediate clinical improvement. Our experience suggests that both pediatric and adult patients respond poorly to nonoperative treatment of chylothorax and that this treatment has a high mortality rate. Post-traumatic and congenital chylothorax should be treated operatively after a limited trial (1 to 2 weeks) of nonoperative therapy. Pleuroperitoneal shunting may offer a reasonable and effective alternative to thoracotomy and thoracic duct ligation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Persistent chylothorax. Treatment by talc pleurodesis.

Two patients with persistent chylothorax resistant to therapy by special diet, thoracenteses, and tube thoracostomy drainage were successfully treated by talc pleurodesis. In one patient with advanced lymphosarcoma involving pleura and mediastinal nodes, the chylothorax was managed by open thoracotomy and talc powder. The other patient developed chylothorax following resection of a thoracic aortic aneurysm. She was successfully treated by talc suspension introduced through a thoracostomy tube. Pleurodesis with talc should be considered only when the chylothorax persists after an adequate period of medical treatment and pleural decompression. Intrapleural instillation of talc through a thoracostomy tube should be successful if the chylothorax can be evacuated and the underlying lung fully expanded.

Chylothorax↗
PubMed1994

[Analysis of patients of psoriasis coexisting with chylothorax].

Six patients diagnosed as Psoriasis with complication of chylothorax (3 of chylothorax, 3 of both chylothorax and chyloperitoneum, age from 21 to 50, male 4, female 2) were reported. All patients have a history of taking a chinese medicine named "complex Wulong powder" for treating psoriasis. All patients have not the history of trauma, operation, and the history of living in epidemic focus of filariasis. Their X-ray exam and CT exam of chest did not show lung lesion but pleural effusion. Chylothorax coexisting with psoriasis was not found in literature. This result suggests that using complex WuLong powder might be the cause of chylothorax. The mechanism was unknown.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Management of thoracic duct complex lesions (chylothorax): experience in 16 patients.

From our experience in 16 patients with persistent chylothorax from fistulas of the thoracic duct or its tributaries, we conclude that no standard treatment is uniformly successful and multimodality therapy should be considered. In selected patients, an anastomosis between ectatic lymphatics or hyperplastic lymph nodes and an adjacent vein may be attempted. Chylothorax from "leakage" of the thoracic duct or its tributaries is rare. Rupture of the thoracic duct superior to the sixth thoracic vertebrae generally results in a left-sided chylothorax; below that level, injury usually results in a right-sided chylothorax. The etiology is heterogeneous and includes blunt trauma, penetrating wounds (1), iatrogenic operative injury and lymphatic obstructions due to congenital abnormalities, inflammatory processes or neoplasms. Based on our experience in 16 patients with persistent chylothorax from thoracic duct complex lesions, we review the available treatment options.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Chylothorax: case report and review of literature.

Chylothorax is a relatively uncommon condition. We report a case of a 53-year-old Chinese man with chylothorax who presented with cough, breathlessness, loss of weight and generalised lymphadenopathy. He was initially diagnosed as having tuberculosis based on histology and cultures of the cervical lymph node. However, immunophenotyping of the pleural fluid by flow cytometry showed the presence of a monoclonal B cell population with Kappa light chain expression suggesting an underlying lymphoproliferative disorder. A repeat lymph node biopsy showed malignant lymphoma (follicular small cleaved type). In spite of aggressive measures which included bilateral tube thoracostomy drainage, a low fat diet, medium chain triglyceride diet, total parenteral nutrition, chemotherapy and mediastinal irradiation, his chylothorax persisted. Hence, we report a patient with persistent chylothorax and generalised lymphadenopathy who was subsequently diagnosed to have concurrent tuberculosis and malignant lymphoma. The literature on chylothorax is reviewed.

Biopsy↗
PubMed1989

Combined occurrence of chyloperitoneum and chylothorax after surgery and chemotherapy for Wilms' tumor.

Chyloperitoneum is an extremely rare complication of abdominal surgery in children and a combined occurrence of chylothorax and chyloperitoneum after abdominal surgery has never been reported in children. Chylous ascites usually occurs as a result of operative trauma to the thoracic duct, cisterna chyli, or its tributaries. About one third of all patients with chylous ascites after retroperitoneal lymph node dissection also develop secondary chylothorax. Diaphragmatic defects have been shown to be responsible for the occurrence of chylothorax secondary to chyloperitoneum. Congenital diaphragmatic weakness may result in evagination of the peritoneum causing diaphragmatic blebs, the rupture of which results in the movement of the peritoneal fluid into the pleural cavity. In the authors' patient, the rent in the diaphragm that occurred during surgery was probably responsible for the chylothorax. The role of chemotherapy, if any, in the pathophysiology of this complication is unknown. Total parenteral nutrition (TPN) is a simple and effective treatment for postoperative chylous effusions. Surgical treatments such as abdominal exploration for the repair of leaking lymphatics and peritoneovenous shunt should be reserved for patients who fail TPN.

Chylothorax↗
PubMed1991

Chylothorax after oesophagectomy.

Chylothorax is an uncommon complication of oesophagectomy. In a review of 537 oesophageal resections there were 11 cases of chylothorax, an incidence of 2.0 per cent. There was no correlation with site, size, penetration, lymph node status, length or type of tumour but there was a significant correlation between chylothorax and the type of operative procedure carried out. The incidence in 95 transhiatal resections was 10.5 per cent. The incidence following 442 transthoracic procedures was 0.2 per cent (P less than 0.001) with one chylous fistula occurring after a three-stage oesophagectomy. Initial management was conservative with chest drainage and total parenteral nutrition. Thoracotomy and duct ligation was subsequently carried out in three patients and was successful in two. The third patient died. Conservative management alone was successful in four out of eight patients, with closure of the fistula at a median of 35 days (range 14-42 days). Four patients treated conservatively died. Transhiatal oesophagectomy greatly increases the risk of chylothorax, a condition that carries a high mortality rate (46 per cent in this series) whether managed conservatively or by surgical intervention.

Chylothorax↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Bilateral chylothorax following neck dissection.

BACKGROUND: Bilateral chylothorax, as a complication of neck dissection, is extremely rare, and was first described in 1907. Ten cases are reported in the literature. METHODS: This presentation illustrates an additional case of bilateral chylothorax occurring after neck dissection. Anatomic and physiologic considerations are presented and possible mechanisms of pathogenesis are discussed. RESULTS: Chylothorax has two major complications: respiratory and metabolic. The modern concepts of treatment are summarized. CONCLUSIONS: After neck dissection, the clinician should suspect chylothorax if the patient had respiratory embarrassment and an abnormal chest x-ray postoperatively.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Use of video-assisted thoracic surgery in the treatment of chylothorax.

Chylothorax, a potentially lethal disorder that may cause profound respiratory, nutritional, and immunologic complications, has become increasingly common in recent years. Medical therapy has been found to have a significant failure rate. Therefore, surgical treatment of complicated chylothorax has become a mainstay of care. Between 1987 and 1993, ten patients at the University of Virginia Hospital were treated with video-assisted thoracic surgery for complicated chylothorax. Twelve thoracoscopic procedures were performed. Patients ranged in age from 7 months to 82 years. Causes included iatrogenic (2), congenital (2), caval thrombosis (2), amyloid (2), blunt trauma (1), and metastatic carcinoid tumor (1). In 10 cases, video-assisted thoracic surgery was employed as the principal mode of therapy: 8 using talc pleurodesis alone, 1 using talc pleurodesis and clipping of the thoracic duct with application of fibrin glue, and 1 requiring clipping of a pleural defect with application of fibrin glue. In 2 cases, a video-assisted thoracic operation was used in conjunction with pleuroperitoneal shunting: a previously placed pleuroperitoneal shunt that was malfunctioning was repositioned thoracoscopically after a pleural adhesiolysis, and a pleural adhesiolysis was performed thoracoscopically before placement of a pleuroperitoneal shunt. In all cases the effusion resolved after the video-assisted thoracic operation without further intervention. Video-assisted thoracic surgery offers an effective means of treating chylothorax, regardless of cause, allowing the advantage of access to thoracic structures without the morbidity of more extensive procedures.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Chylothorax following fracture of the thoracolumbar spine.

Chylothorax is an uncommon occurrence seen most frequently in patients with malignancy. We report a case of chylothorax following fracture-dislocation of the thoracolumbar spine, the ninth reported case in the English literature. Seven cases of chylothorax were identified in a 12-year period at our institution. A total 925 patients sustained fractures of the thoracic or lumbar spine during this period, and this was the only case associated with chylothorax. We have reviewed the literature, and recommend conservative management utilizing closed thoracotomy drainage and total parenteral nutrition for at least 2 weeks. If chyle flow has not diminished by that time then thoracic duct ligation should be considered.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Supradiaphragmatic thoracic duct clipping for chylothorax through left-sided video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery.

Chylothorax is a life-threatening clinical entity. Traditional surgical management for cases refractory to conservative treatment is thoracic duct ligation through a right open thoracotomy or closure of the site of duct laceration through an open thoracotomy. We report herein two patients with left chylothorax successfully treated by supradiaphragmatic thoracic duct (STD) ligation through left-sided video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). This approach offers optimal exposure for the thoracic duct ligation and is useful for treatment of left chylothorax after left-sided thoracic surgery and idiopathic left chylothorax.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Late-onset chylothorax after heart-lung transplantation.

Chylothorax has rarely been reported after heart and lung transplantation. We describe a case of a bilateral chylothorax that occurred in a 53-year-old man 4 months after heart-lung transplantation and review the three additional reports in the literature of chylothorax after heart transplantation. Chyle drainage may cause compromise of the transplant patient. The good nutritional status of our recipient, however, allowed conservative therapy with chest tube drainage and enteral low-fat diet, without the need for surgical intervention. We concluded that chylothorax can presents late after lung transplantation and that conservative treatment should be considered in patients with good nutritional status.

Chylothorax↗
PubMed1985

Pleuropulmonary and skeletal lymphangiomatosis with chylothorax and chylopericardium.

Congenital lymphangiomatosis of lung and bone, with or without chylothorax, is a rare but often fatal systemic lymphatic malformation. In those who survive infancy and early childhood, parietal pleurectomy with excision of lymphatic lakes and ligation of the thoracic duct can be successful. Two patients with lymphangiomatosis are described, 1 with chylothorax and chylopericardium with generalized skeletal lesions and the other with pleuropulmonary lesions and chylothorax. Both were successfully treated with parietal pleurectomy, excision of lymphatic lakes, and ligation of lymphatics, including the thoracic duct. To our knowledge, the triad of generalized skeletal lymphangiomatosis, chylopericardium, and chylothorax has not been previously reported.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

[Surgery for chylothorax].

Chyle is lymph fluid of intestinal origin containing fat digestion products. Chylothorax is produced by leaks from the thoracic duct or from one of its collaterals subsequent to valve incompetence. These leaks may be due to trauma (post-surgical chylothorax, the most frequent) or to spontaneous rupture of a lymph vessel distended by chyle reflux, the thoracic duct itself being pathological. When the thoracic duct is interrupted (obstruction, agenesis), chylothorax may occur from leakage due to reflux within substitution collateral pathways diverting the flow of chyle into the venoux confluents of the neck. Medical treatment is always attempted first: evacuation of chylothorax by drainage and fat-free diet or parenteral nutrition. Recently, treatment with octreotide has been found to be beneficial. Surgery consists in thoracic duct ligation or suture of leaking collaterals. In difficult cases, when the chyle leakage cannot be identified, pleurodesis is the only option.

Chylothorax↗