Patient perspectives on the use of indwelling pleural catheters in malignant pleural effusions.

Background: Indwelling pleural catheters are an effective treatment option for patients with malignant pleural effusions. Despite their popularity, there remains a paucity of data on the patient experience and key patient-centred outcomes.

Objective: To investigate the experience of patients receiving an indwelling pleural catheter to better inform and identify potential areas for improvement in care.

Clinical predictors of successful and earlier pleurodesis with a tunnelled pleural catheter in malignant pleural effusion: a cohort study.

Background: Tunnelled pleural catheters used to treat malignant pleural effusions may achieve pleurodesis. We aimed to identify factors associated with higher pleurodesis rates and earlier catheter removal.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed a prospective database of tunnelled pleural catheters inserted consecutively between May 2006 and June 2013 for confirmed malignant pleural effusion.

Indwelling Peritoneal Catheters for Managing Malignancy-Associated Ascites.

We investigated use of the tunnelled catheter in a large palliative population with malignancy-associated ascites employing retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained patient database of tunnelled peritoneal catheter insertions for refractory malignancy-associated ascites or new rapidly accumulating ascites. We found that a 100 percent procedural success rate was achieved with 395 tunnelled catheters inserted in 386 patients. Catheters remained in situ for 66 days, on average.