INDWELLING PLEURAL CATHETER FOR MANAGEMENT OF MODERATE TO MASSIVE PLEURAL EFFUSION – A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WITH REPEATED THORACOCENTESIS

Background: Pleural effusions have both malignant and non-malignant causes. Non-malignant effusions are mostly due to infections, other causes include effusions secondary to cardiac, hepatic and renal failure. The aim and objective is to compare two commonly used methods in the drainage of moderate to massive pleural effusion, viz repeated thoracocentesis and Indwelling Pleural Catheter (IPC), and to evaluate the improvement in outcome parameters, particularly duration of in-hospital stay and presence of secondary infection. Materials and Methods: Randomised interventional study was carried out among 89 patients admitted with moderate to massive benign pleural effusion. Patients were randomly allocated to two groups A and B. GROUP A patients were managed by repeated thoracocentesis. GROUP B included patients undergoing indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) drainage. SPSS Software version 22.0 was used for statistical analysis. Results: 89 patients were enrolled in the study, of which 57 (64%) were allocated to the thoracocentesis group [Group A], and the remaining 32 (36%) underwent Indwelling Pleural Catheter Drainage (IPC) [Group B]. The mean duration of hospital stays in Group A (thoracocentesis group) was higher than that for Group B (IPC group), (11.88 vs 8.63 days; p = 0.01), which was statistically significant. Conclusion: Intrapleural Indwelling Catheters are advantageous compared to serial thoracocentesis for the management of non-malignant moderate to massive effusions with shorter duration of in-hospital stay in IPC patients compared to serial thoracocentesis. Keywords: Pleural Effusion, Thoracocentesis, Indwelling Catheter, Length of Stay.