Abstract
We report that pleurodesis using 50% glucose was successfully performed in patients with pulmonary air leakage after lobectomy and those with pneumothorax who wanted to avoid surgery. We injected 200 ml of 50% glucose and 10 ml of 1% xylocaine into the chest cavity. We treated 11 patients from April to July 2012, and treatment was successful in 9 of them, but unsuccessful in the other 2 cases resulting in changing to pleurodesis with OK-432 to remove the pulmonary air leakage. In the 2 cases, the patients had severe emphysema, and the amounts of pulmonary air leakage were especially large. Although the efficiency of pleurodesis with this method may be weaker in comparison with OK-432, there were few adverse reactions such as chest pain or fever, and it could be safely used in 2 cases with interstitial pneumonia as well. In conclusion, this is easy-to-use, safe, and efficient treatment method and can be applied first as a pleurodesis agent.
