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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Respirol. Jul 28, 2015; 5(2): 135-139
Published online Jul 28, 2015. doi: 10.5320/wjr.v5.i2.135
Management of recurrent malignant pleural effusions with a tunneled indwelling pleural catheter
Marieke De Heer, Robin Cornelissen, Henk C Hoogsteden, Leon M van den Toorn
Marieke De Heer, Robin Cornelissen, Henk C Hoogsteden, Leon M van den Toorn, Department of Pulmonary Disease and Tuberculosis, Erasmus Medical Center, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author contributions: De Heer M wrote the article; Cornelissen R, Hoogsteden HC and van den Toorn LM all contributed to reviewing the article before submission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have any conflicts-of-interest related to writing this review.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Marieke De Heer, MD, PhD, Department of Pulmonary Disease and Tuberculosis, Erasmus Medical Center, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. i.m.deheer@erasmusmc.nl
Telephone: +31-10-7034870 Fax: +31-10-7034871
Received: October 2, 2014
Peer-review started: October 3, 2014
First decision: November 4, 2014
Revised: January 27, 2015
Accepted: March 18, 2015
Article in press: March 20, 2015
Published online: July 28, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Indwelling pleural catheters appear to be as efficient and cost-effective as talc pleurodesis in the treatment of malignant pleural effusions with a low complications rate. A great advantage is that terminally ill patients can be treated at home in the last stage of their lives.