Therapeutic target
Improvement of symptomatology
Therapy recommendations
- Therapy is based on the cause of the disease
- If necessary, antibiosis (antibiotic therapy).
- If necessary, diuresis (promotion of urine excretion by medication).
- See also under “Further therapy” due topleural puncture/thoracic drainage or suction-irrigation drainage for pleural empyema (accumulation of pus (empyema) within the pleura).
Further notes
- In patients with malignant pleural effusion, instillation of a talc suspension (4 grams of talc as a suspension in 50 ml of isotonic saline) through a pleural catheter allows outpatient pleurodesis (procedure in which the visceral pleura (lung pleura) is connected to the parietal pleura (chest pleura)). The primary endpoint of pleurodesis by day 35 after treatment was achieved by 30 of 69 patients (43%) compared with 16 of 70 patients (23%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio for treatment success was 2.20, which was highly significant with a 95% confidence interval of 1.23 to 3.92). The criterion for success was drainage of less than 50 mL of fluid.Note: Optimal treatment usually consists of thoracoscopic poudrage with talc (via surgical thoracoscopy).
