A thirty six week gestation male baby weighing three kilogram was born to a twenty five year old mother by spontaneous vaginal delivery. At four hours of life, the baby developed respiratory distress with cyanosis and was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. There was clinical and radiological evidence of bilateral pleural effusion. Thoracentesis revealed a transudate. Repeated thoracentesis was necessary to relieve the respiratory distress. Subsequently, multi resistant Klebsiella aerogenes was isolated from the blood. The baby expired due to gram negative sepsis.
Congenital chylothorax is rare in preterm infants. While most cases respond to conservative treatment, a few require surgery. Treatment with intravenous octreotide has been reported to have varying success in preterm infants. A fetus was diagnosed with bilateral hydrothoraces at 29 weeks of gestation and repeated thoracocentesis was performed antenatally to allow growth of the lungs. She was delivered electively at 32 weeks by caesarean section. Hydrops fetalis was confirmed and chest tubes were inserted bilaterally soon after birth. Intravenous octreotide was commenced on day 4 of life, titrated to a maximum of 10 μg/kg/hr for a total of 28 days. Hydrothorax resolved at day 30 and total parenteral nutrition was given for a total of 37 days. She was successfully extubated on day 40 of life and discharged on day 80. On review at 6 months of age, she was thriving and developing normally.
Chylothorax is a rarely recognised post-operative complication following repair of congenital diaphragmatic hernia. We report here a newborn infant with this condition which resolved with percutaneous chest drainage, total parenteral nutrition and enteral feeding of a formula high in medium-chain triglycerides.
A case of traumatic chylothorax is presented with its typical clinical presentation. Failure of conservative measures led to a transthoracic ligation of the thoracic duct, with good result.
Chylothorax is suspected when milky white turbid fluid is obtained from thoracocentesis. Conservative management usually involves intercostal tube drainage, dietary restriction, and total parenteral nutrition. Surgery is indicated when conservative management fails. We describe a young woman with idiopathic chylothorax who failed conservative therapy but refused surgery. We instilled intrapleural streptokinase, which improved her condition.
Chylothorax is defined as the presence of chyle in the pleural cavity. Central vein thrombosis is an under-recognized cause of chylothorax in the adult population and is commonly related to central venous catheterization. Case 1 illustrates a patient with AIDS and disseminated tuberculosis with left chylothorax and central vein thrombosis after a month of antituberculosis therapy. Case 2 was a patient with advanced seminoma who presented with left chylothorax and central vein thrombosis while on chemotherapy. Chylothorax resolved with anticoagulation for both cases. Case 3 was a lymphoma patient with central vein thrombosis who developed chylothorax during chemotherapy. Chylothorax resolved with the continuation of anticoagulation and did not recur despite his progressive underlying lymphoma. There was no central venous catheterization in any of these three cases. These cases illustrate the unique association of central vein thrombosis and chylothorax and the importance of anticoagulation in its management.
Chylothorax is an uncommon cause of pleural effusion. Recurrent chylous effusions are often resistant to conservative treatment and many need surgical intervention. We report a 69-year-old woman with refractory idiopathic chylothorax resistant to medium-chain triglyceride diet and intermittent thoracentesis. Lymphangiography and lymphoscintigraphy failed to identify the site of leakage. We initiated continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) 12 h before and 48 hours after talc pleurodesis. Chest drain was removed at day 3 and she was discharged at day 5. To our knowledge, this is the first case of successful resolution of idiopathic refractory chylothorax with CPAP ventilation used in tandem with talc pleurodesis.