Treatment Of Chylothorax After Radical Resection Of Pulmonary Carcinoma

Objective To investigate the morbidity of chylothorax after radical resection of pulmonary cancer and to evaluate its effectiveness of the treatments.Method This study was based on 607 patients with resection of lung cancer in our hospital from January,2010 to March,2011.8 patients had postoperative complication of chylothorax,for which retrospective study was performed.Results There are 8 chylothorax cases in 607 patients who underwent radical resection of lung cancer with the morbidity rate of 1.32%. Among them thoracotomy was used as the approach in 476 cases. The morbidity rate of the chylothorax was 0.84%(4/476). Thoracoscopy surgery was performed on 131 cases, the morbidity rate of the chylothorax is 3.05%(4/313). There is no significant difference in gender, age and the pathological aspect between two groups (P> 0.05). In these 8 patients of chylothorax,6 received conservative therapy,1 of them received pleurodesis,1 of them received ligation of thoracic duct in secondary operation. No postoperative mortality and morbidity were occurred for those patients. Conclusion In this retrospective study the morbidity of chylothorax is 1.32% in radical resection of lung cancer. Most of the patients were able to be cured by the conservative therapy with a satisfactory prognosis. Only 0.16 per cent patients need secondary surgical intervention.