ISSN : 1301-5680
e-ISSN : 2149-8156
Turkish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery     
Chemical pleurodesis: from the point of view of pulmonary physicians and thoracic surgeons
Sevda Şener Cömert, Benan Çağlayan, Elif Torun Parmaksız, Ali Fidan, Gülşen Saraç, Banu Salepçi
Dr. Lütfi Kırdar Kartal Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Göğüs Hastalıkları Kliniği, İstanbul, Türkiye
DOI : 10.5606/tgkdc.dergisi.2013.6777
Background: This study aims to determine clinical approaches of chest physicians’ (CP) and thoracic surgeons’ (TS) in various divisions in Turkey on chemical pleurodesis.

Methods: An invitation letter for a web-based questionnaire including 18 questions on chemical pleurodesis was delivered to CPs and TSs via electronic mail groups of Turkish Respiratory Society, Turkish Thoracic Society and Thoracic surgeons. A total of 126 physicians including 69 CPs and 56 TSs answered the questionnaire. One physician did not report his/her speciality.

Results: Total number of pleurodesis in respondents in a year was 3441 (mean: 30.5±44.4), and most commonly used agents were talc in powder form, bleomycin, tetracycline and talc solution (78.5%, 30%, 24.8%, 24%, respectively). The mean number of pleurodesis in TSs and CPs in a year were 45.9±51.8 and 13.1±23.1 (p<0.001). Forty percent of TSs and 12.7% of CPs reported that they performed pleurodesis at first attack (p<0.001). Nine point two percent of CPs and 60.7% of TSs marked thoracoscopic pleurodesis as a method (p<0.001). In case of failed pleurodesis, there was a significant difference in favor of TSs for the repetition of the process with same agent (p<0.001). The question of “Who should perform pleurodesis?” was answered by 93.5% of respondents as TSs, and by 63.4% of respondents as CPs. When the same question was evaluated according to the speciality, answers of TSs and CPs were 100%, 29.1% and 87.7%, 92.3%, respectively.

Conclusion: Our study results showed that there were different trends of TSs and CPs on pleurodesis in Turkey and these results were consistent with the literature in general.

Keywords : Pleural effusion; pleurodesis; pneumothorax; questionnaire
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