Chylothorax in children after congenital heart surgery.

Background: A definitive management strategy for postoperative chylothorax remains elusive. We reviewed our experience in the management of chylothorax in children after congenital heart surgery.

Methods: The case records of 51 patients, with a median age of 11 months (range, 4 days to 19.6 years), diagnosed to have postoperative chylothorax between 1981 and 2004 were reviewed. The responses of patients to nutritional modifications, octreotide therapy, and surgical interventions were noted.

Results: The prevalence of postoperative chylothorax, which developed at a median of 9 days after operation (range, 0 to 24 days), was 0.85% (51 of 5,995). Four patients died, and among the 47 survivors the median duration and total volume of chylous drainage was 15 days (range, 1 to 89 days) and 156 mL/kg (range, 3 to 6,476), respectively. The duration of chyle output was significantly longer after the Fontan-type procedures (p = 0.0006). Twenty-one patients were diagnosed between 1981 and 1999 and managed by nutritional modifications, 2 of whom required further surgical interventions. Of the 30 patients diagnosed between 2000 and 2004, 12 responded to nutritional modifications alone while 18 were started on octreotide therapy at a median of 19.5 days (range, 7 to 35 days) after the onset of chylothorax. Fifteen of the 18 (83%) patients responded to octreotide therapy at 15.3 +/- 5.5 days after starting octreotide, while 3 required further surgical interventions. None developed side effects from octreotide therapy.

Conclusions: Octreotide has been incorporated into the management algorithm of postoperative chylothorax and appears to be a useful adjunctive therapy.