Octreotide to treat postoperative chylothorax after cardiac operations in children

The use of octreotide to treat congenital chylothorax

“…Treatment of chylothorax has traditionally been nonoperative, with as many as 80% of patients responding to conservative measures [5,6]. Most treatment algorithms are based on adequate drainage of the pleural fluid in combination with either modification or complete cessation of enteral feeds.…”

Somatostatin for intractable postoperative chylothorax in a premature infant

“…Paediatric reports in the literature describe the treatment of chylothorax with somatostatin following thoracic and abdominal surgery in children aged term and above [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Its use in the premature infant has only been reported in the management of spontaneous chylothorax [12].…”

“…Because of prematurity, a low dose of 1 lg/kg/h of intravenous somatostatin was started in our patient and slowly increased to an effective maximum dose of 3.5 lg/kg/h. Reported doses have ranged from 3.5lg/kg/h to 12 lg/kg/h [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

“…Few paediatric case reports exist that describe somatostatin [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] or its synthetic analogue, octreotide, as an adjunct in the nonoperative management of a postoperative chylothorax. We present the case of a premature male infant who developed a postoperative chylous leak following repair of oesophageal atresia and distal tracheo-oesophageal fistula.…”

Somatostatin treatment of massive lymphorrhea following excision of a lymphatic malformation

“…Most reports describe its use following failure of conservative measures. In these reports lymphatic fistula output usually decreased dramatically within 72 h and essentially stops within 5-10 days [2,3,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. This dramatic response has prompted Leibovitch et al to recommend that it be used early in treatment of postoperative chylous ascites, prior to instituting TPN [22].…”