Effectiveness of somatostatin in the conservative management of chylothorax.

Chylothorax is a rare but potentially serious and well recognized cause of pleural effusion. Chylothorax commonly occurs following general thoracic and cardiac procedures. Additionally it sometimes develops secondary to non-surgical trauma, i.e. weight lifting. Here we report two additional cases with chylothorax. Somatostatin was added to conservative treatment protocol to increase effectiveness of therapy in both cases. Although the first case required surgical intervention, we avoided any surgical procedure in the second patient with conservative management combined with somatostatin.

Perigraft seroma complicating the modified Blalock-Taussig shunts: two consecutive instances with review of literature.

Systemic-to-pulmonary artery shunts using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) (modified Blalock-Taussig shunt) are being used successfully in palliation of cyanotic congenital heart diseases. Graft thrombosis is by far the most common complication of the procedure. Persistant serum leakage through PTFE graft causing perigraft seroma is a rare but devastating complication resulting in increased duration of tube drainage or reinsertion of chest tubes, prolonged hospital stay, and multiple operations. Two consecutive modified Blalock-Taussig shunts complicated by perigraft seroma formation are presented here with review of the literature.