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.