ABSTRACT

Background: Many cases of malignancy, either inside the thoracic cavity or fromother body organs, accompanied by massive pleural effusion. The treatment for those cases isdone by drainage and continued with pleurodesis after pleural fluid production <150 ml/day. This method takes long drainage duration and care, and the cost is enourmous. To solve that problem we proposea way of management of malignant pleural effusion more efficiently.

Methods: From July 2008 to July 2009 there were 60 patients with pleural effusion due to malignancy. In the case group we performed pleurodesis early (pleural fluid production> 1000/day), while in the control group pleurodesis performed if pleural fluid production <150 ml/day. Pleurodesis is succes if acchieve pleural fluid production <100 ml/day before third days after procedure. Both groups used pleurodesis with chest tube (no.28-32).

Results: There were 60 patients which is elligible for this research. Allocation to groups were 30 patients performed early palliative therapy with talk and 30 patients performed conventional therapy (conventional pleurodesis).  From the demographic depiction, tumor type, disease characteristic and length of stay both pleurodesis group result were no significant difference (p> 0,05). The duration of drainage and length of care was much shorter in group early pleurodesis (p <0.01).

Conclusion:Early pleurodesis methods can shorten the drainage time and length of care without affecting the effectiveness of pleurodesis results

Keywords: massive pleural effusion, malignancy, pleurodesis, talc