The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics
2004 , Vol 46 , Num 3
Effectiveness of somatostatin in the conservative
management of chylothorax
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
Abstract
Chylothorax is a rare but potentially serious and well recognized cause of pleural effusion. Chylothorax commonly occurs following general thoracic and cardiac procedures. Additionally it sometimes develops secondary to non-surgical trauma, i.e. weight lifting. Here we report two additional cases with chylothorax. Somatostatin was added to conservative treatment protocol to increase effectiveness of therapy in both cases. Although the first case required surgical intervention, we avoided any surgical procedure in the second patient with conservative management combined with somatostatin.