Saturday January 3, 2009
Something which we have been doing, here is the data now

Intensivist have been using pig tail drainage catheter under ultrasound guidance for several years. Study by Liang in Intensive Care Medicine confirmed the findings.

On a retrospective review of 133 patients, pigtail drainage catheter yielded largest amount of fluid (5382 +/- 4844 ml) in massive transudative effusion with longest duration of drainage (9 +/- 7 days). It has the highest complication rate of 18%. The success rate was highest when used to treat traumatic hemothorax (100%) and postoperative pleural effusions (85%); drains inserted for empyema were more likely to fail (overall success rate, 42%). No significant insertion complications, such as hollow organ perforation, were caused by this procedure.


Editor’s Comment: This procedure is simple and safe to perform. In addition it helps us to prevent transfer critically ill patients to radiology department.



Laing SJ, Tu CY, Chen HJ, Chen W et al. Application of ultrasound-guided pigtail catheter for drainage of pleural effusions in the ICU. Intensive Care Medicine. Published online Oct 11 2008.