Chylothorax in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patient

✍ Scribed by Clinton H. Doerr; Bruce A. Staats; Svetomir N. Markovic

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 55 KB
• Volume: 70
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0361-8609
• DOI: 10.1002/ajh.10142

✦ Synopsis

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is rarely complicated by chylothorax: we present a 93-year-old woman with CLL who developed recurrent pleural effusions that were ultimately found to be chylous in nature. Despite eight repeated thoracenteses, she continued to experience re-accumulation of fluid, and therefore, video-assisted thoracotomy with mass ligation of the thoracic duct region plus pleurodesis was performed to resolve the chylothorax. Despite her age and underlying disease, she did well during follow-up. The etiology and management of chylothorax are also reviewed.