Table 2. Comparison of medical and surgical treatments for chylothorax in patients diagnosed and treated for chylothorax before and after initiation of clinical practice guideline (N=163).
| Treatment | All | Early Cohort (n=118) |
Late Cohort (n=45) |
P-value§ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surgical intervention | ||||
|
| ||||
| Mechanical pleurodesis | 7 (4.3) | 6 (5.1) | 1 (2.2) | 0.67 |
| Time from surgery to mechanical pleurodesis, days | 32 (20-54) | 31 (20-33) | 54 | 0.36 |
|
| ||||
| Time from chylothorax diagnosis to mechanical pleurodesis, days | 24 (10-46) | 22.5 (10-25) | 46 | 0.36 |
|
| ||||
| Thoracic duct ligation | 21 (12.9) | 16 (13.6) | 5 (11.1) | 0.68 |
| Time from surgery to thoracic duct ligation, days | 20 (19-27) | 21.5 (19.5-31.5) | 20 (15-27) | 0.57 |
|
| ||||
| Time from chylothorax diagnosis to thoracic duct ligation, days | 13 (10-20) | 13 (10-22) | 14 (9-19) | 0.90 |
|
| ||||
| Octreotide | ||||
|
| ||||
| Treated with octreotide | 29 (17.8) | 18 (15.3) | 11 (24.4) | 0.17 |
|
| ||||
| Time from surgery to octreotide treatment, days | 14 (10-23) | 20.5 (14-29) | 9 (6-10) | 0.007 |
|
| ||||
| Duration on octreotide, days | 10 (6-16) | 11 (7-20) | 7 (6-14) | 0.28 |
|
| ||||
*
Data presented as N (%) for categorical variables and median (interquartile range) for continuous variables.
§
P-value from Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test for categorical variables and Wilcoxon Rank Sum test for continuous variables on comparison of each characteristic between patients in both cohorts.