esloan
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My husband went to have a small to moderate pleural effusion removed as he is so short of breath. She did not do the process because she said the fluid was loculated. Showed us the scan. Is there a way to remove this? I saw something about a pulmonary vein isolated procedure. Are you aware of such a thing, or is there another way to remove this?
Thanks,Liz
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Reply # - September 2, 2012, 05:33 PM
Reply To: Loculated pleura effusion
Liz,
I'm sorry that your husband's effusion could not be removed. Loculated pleural effusions can be difficult to remove because there is no large area of fluid that can be drained, but a number of smaller areas separated by tissue. I have sent your question to the GRACE faculty for a response.
JimC
Forum moderator
Reply # - September 3, 2012, 10:51 AM
Reply To: Loculated pleura effusion
The main way I know is to use ultrasound guidance to isolate where the effusion is, then place the needle right there. That's usually something that needs to be done by more specialized people than the oncologist, like the people who work for interventional radiology or a pulmonologist who does a lot of thoracenteses (the procedure to remove pleural fluid collections). The other alternative is to have a surgeon go into the chest cavity and break up the adhesions that are causing the loculated fluid collections. Often, when a surgeon does that, they would do a pleurodesis (procedure to cause deliberate scarring to close off that space between the outside of the lung and the inside of the chest wall).
Good luck.
-Dr. West