[Chyle leak after cervical surgery: Meta analysis--Management strategy].

Objective: Chyle fistula is a known complication in cervical surgery. It can lead to a postoperative lymphorrhea. There is no consensus on its management. The aim of this work is to propose a management strategy for postoperative chyle leak.

Materials And Methods: A literature review was conducted using PubMed database.

Results: Six prospectives articles were included. The enteral diet allowed a success in 57% of cases, and in these cases a lymph flow less than 580 mL/day. Parenteral nutrition was effective when the flow was less than 1050 mL/day. Reoperation was performed in case of failure of the nutritional treatments.

Conclusion: Several therapeutics are available. From this meta-analysis, we developed a management strategy. We initiate an enteral diet when lymph flow is less than 500 mL/ day. Parenteral nutrition is used if the flow rate is between 500 and 1000 mL/day or in case of inefficiency of enteral diet during 10 days. Finally, revision surgery is necessary when the flow is greater than 1000 mL/day or when parenteral nutrition was ineffective in 10 days.