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