Abstract :
Background: Pleural effusion is a common disease entity and therapeutic thoracocentesis is a common
procedure to tap the pleural fluid. The routine method of pleural tapping is associated with some
complications. This study was taken up to assess the rate of complications between the routine procedure
and a unique procedure.
Materials and Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in the department of Chest and
TB in a tertiary care centre. About 30 patients had undergone therapeutic pleural tapping by the routine
procedure and 30 patients had undergone tapping by unique procedure where the pleural fluid was allowed
to flow through tube passively with gravity. The complications were compared between the two procedures.
Results: About 40% of the study subjects in routine procedure belonged to 31 – 40 years age group.
About 60% of the patients in routine and 53.3% in the unique group were females. There was no difference
in chest pain in both the groups. Dyspnea, cough and reduced blood pressure was higher in the routine
procedure group than the Unique procedure group. The signs of reexpansion pulmonary edema were higher
in the unique group. But these were statistically not significant for 0 – 30 minutes. After one hour of the
procedure, dyspneoa, signs of reexpansion pulmonary edema, cough hematoma were higher in the routine
group. After 48 hours of the procedure, chest pain was noted in 3.3% of the routine cases, dyspnoea in
3.3% of the cases and fever in 3.3% of the cases.
Conclusions: This study had shown that the needle catheter method was shown to be superior to the
routine thoracocentesis.
Keyword :
Complications, Catheter, Gravity, Therapeutic thoracocentesis, Unique procedure.