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If one decides to have the talc surgery to help stop the fluid from building up in the lungs where does the fluid end up going? Is talc surgery the same as VATS surgery?
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If one decides to have the talc surgery to help stop the fluid from building up in the lungs where does the fluid end up going? Is talc surgery the same as VATS surgery?
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Reply # - December 3, 2012, 08:02 PM
Reply To: TALC surgery and Fluid in the lungs
VATS is a type of surgical approach in which the lung surgery is done through a videoscopic approach and a small portal. Pleurodesis, the procedure in which talc or another agent to produce inflammation is administered on the pleural surface, can and often is done via a VATS approach.
When the inflammation causes adhesion of the outside of the lung to the inside of the chest wall, it's kind of like filling in a pothole. It eliminates the "potential space" to fill with fluid, so that fluid is often just resorbed by the body as fast as it's being produced. If there's still a larger amount of fluid being produced than can be resorbed, you tend to see a loculated effusion, where there are pockets of fluid between scarred areas of inflammation.
-Dr. West