Implantation of Indwelling Pleural Catheter as Treatment of Chronic Effusion Under Ventricular-Assist-Devices Support

Pleural-effusion is a general symptom in cardiac insufficiency even after VAD implantation. Draining of pleuraleffusions improves symptoms without complications. In VAD-patients repeated thoracentesis is associated with higher risk of bleeding, the operative management showed very safe results with more privileges towards video assisted-thoracic-surgery. Nonetheless, operative treatment isn’t always feasible. In such cases another approach is required. We found that implantation of indwelling-pleural-catheter is an effective treatment for non-operablepatients as in our Case a spontaneous remission of the pleural-effusion was achieved after 6 months. However, a case of chronic pleural-effusion with indwelling-pleural-catheter and left ventricular-assist-device support has not been previously reported.