Thoracentesis Guided By Focused Ultrasonography Performed By the Intensivist Physician in Malignant Pleural Effusion: A Safe Strategy

Abstract

The wide use of pulmonary and cardiac ultrasound in critical medicine allows early diagnoses and the performance of certain procedures that achieve a prompt intervention in a type of patient who does not wait. Thoracentesis is a percutaneous procedure for collecting pleural fluid, and it has diagnostic utility and therapeutic applications. The use of ultrasound to perform an evacuative and diagnostic thoracentesis has proven to be a simple, safe, low-cost, and especially reproducible procedure in personnel under training and with training already established. We present an algorithm on the realization of a successful Thoracentesis Guided by Focused Ultrasonography Performed by the Intensivist Physician in Malignant Pleural Effusion, which is based on different protocols of daily practice in intensive care units. This algorithm follows certain steps and with good performance for the identification of pleural effusion, catheter passage and drainage of the effusion.