Comparing Outcome of Thoracocentesis and Pigtail Catheter Drainage in Treatment of Patients With Hepatic Hydrothorax

Comparing Outcome of Thoracocentesis and Pigtail Catheter Drainage in Treatment of Patients With Hepatic Hydrothorax

Hepatic hydrothorax (HH) is a pleural effusion that develops in a patient with cirrhosis and portal hypertension in the absence of cardiopulmonary disease (Lv et al., 2018). Several factors are known to contribute to the development of effusion; the most accepted mechanism of which is the direct delivery of ascitic fluid from the peritoneal cavity to the pleural cavity by "positive" intra-abdominal pressure and a "negative" intrathoracic pressure of the pleural cavity through microscopic congenital diaphragmatic defects (Han et al., 2022).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients who met the following inclusion criteria were enrolled:
• Liver cirrhosis (with or without hepatocellular carcinoma).
• Hepatic hydrothorax (bilateral or unilateral).

Exclusion Criteria:

• patients with a pleural effusion due to a condition other than HH.
• who had a diagnosis of tuberculosis pleurisy, parapneumonic effusion, inflammatory pleuritis, other neoplasms, and congestive heart failure.