Management of malignant pleural effusion by an indwelling pleural catheter: A cost-efficiency analysis.

Background: For patients that are expected to survive for longer, the risk of complications combined with the need for more vacuum drainage bottles have become barriers to the placement of indwelling pleural catheter (IPC), since these could increase costs.

Objetives: The objective of the current article is to determine the cost and efficiency of treating malignant pleural effusion (MPE) with IPC in Spanish hospitals.

Methods: We compared the cost associated with the use of IPC per outpatient and per inpatient.