FIGURE 5.

A practical approach to the management of a malignant pleural effusion in a severely resource constrained setting. Where the patient experiences and improvement in symptoms after thoracentesis and has a reasonable prognosis, an indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) is the preferred intervention. Talc pleurodesis may be done through the IPC, unless there is a nonexpandable lung (NEL), or the life expectancy is <14 weeks. If no IPC is available, an intercostal drain with talc pleurodesis is an acceptable alternative. Figure created using BioRender.com.