Treatment of persistent chylothorax with somatostatin: A case report

Abstract

Chylothorax is potentially serious complication of pediatric cardiac operations and its treatment is often difficult. We report a case of 11 years old male who underwent aortic coarctation repair. A persistant chylothorax developed during early postoperative period. The attempts of classic conservative alternative treatments such as total parenteral nutrition, low fat diet, pleural tube drainage were failed. However, further somatostatin treatment in addition to these methods resulted in dramatically significant decrease in the patient's chylous fluide drainage. We believe that the use of somatostatin to treat postoperative chylothorax is an effective and alternative treatment for all age groups including children.