Introduction
Chylothorax is a postoperative complication after thoracic or
cardiovascular surgery1). The chronic loss of chyle
leads to nutritional, metabolic, and immunological problems that are
responsible for longer hospital stays and a relatively high mortality in
patients with chylothorax2). Treatment of chylothorax
has traditionally been performed conservatively3)including the administration of MCT-based formula, octreotide,
somatostatin analogues, or corticosteroids. Chemical pleurodesis with
instillation of various agents (OK-432, bleomycin, povidone-iodine) in
the pleural space is occasionally needed as second-line treatment.
Recently, the successful treatment of prenatal and neonatal chylothorax
by pleurodesis using OK-432 has been reported3).
However, there have been only a few reports describing whether or not
treatment using OK-432 for infants with chromosomal abnormalities is
effective and safe.
We herein report the successful use of OK-432 for a low-birth-weight
infant with trisomy 18 who developed refractory chylothorax after
thoracic surgery.