Abstract
A 72-year-old man was admitted to our hospital in September 2012 with a 7-year history of swelling in the neck and discomfort while swallowing. He was diagnosed as having thyroid cancer of the right lower lobe by CT and ultrasonography, therefore, thyroidectomy with lymph node dissection was performed. Although the patient could resume oral intake by day 2 after the surgery, chyle leak via a drainage tube was found on day 3 after the surgery. There was no dyspnea or swelling of the neck. Oral intake was stopped and the patient was started on intravenous hyperalimentation. However, since no improvement was observed in the chyle leak, octreotide administration was started on day 7 after the surgery. On the 3rd day after the start of octreotide administration, the chyle leak decreased markedly, and octreotide was continued for a total of 7 days. The patient started to eat again on day 19 after the surgery, and the chyle leak did not recur. Chyle leak is one of the serious complications after cervical surgery. We report a case of chyle leak developing after thyroidectomy that was successfully treated with octreotide.
