Liver Cirrhosis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Liver Cirrhosis, including details on alcohol, treatment, drugs, effects, causes.

Diaphragmatic repair of two cases of hepatic hydrothorax using video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery.

Ibi T, Koizumi K, Hirata T, Mikami I, Hisayoshi T, Shimizu K

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Nippon Medical School Hospital, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8602, Japan. t-ibi@nms.ac.jp

Hepatic hydrothorax is defined as the presence of a significant pleural effusion that develops in a patient with cirrhosis of the liver who does not have underlying cardiac or pulmonary disease. There are few published case reports dealing with hepatic hydrothorax treated surgically because patients with hepatic hydrothorax have end-stage liver disease. Recently, we treated two patients with refractory hepatic hydrothorax by directly suturing the diaphragmatic defects during video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). During surgery, the diaphragmatic defects were identified using abdominal insufflation of saline with indocyanine green or carbon dioxide. After suture closure using fibrin glue, both right pleural effusions were improved. The patients' postoperative courses were uneventful, and they did not require a drainage tube when they were discharged.

Published 12 May 2008 in Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg, 56(5): 229-32.
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