Survival and pleurodesis outcome in patients with malignant pleural effusion – a systematic review

Elinor Harriss,Rachel M. Mercer,Najib M. Rahman,Maged Hassan

doi:10.1515/pap-2020-0147

Survival and pleurodesis outcome in patients with malignant pleural effusion – a systematic review

Elinor Harriss, Rachel M. Mercer

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1515/pap-2020-0147

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Abstract

Abstract Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is a common condition that presents with progressive breathlessness. Long term solutions are often required due to recurrence of effusion after simple drainage. Pleurodesis is one of the main options resorted to for long term control of MPE. There is data to suggest there may be a survival benefit for patients with MPE who achieve successful pleurodesis. A systematic review was carried out to explore this correlation and results suggest that there could be a survival difference according to pleurodesis outcome in patients with MPE. Fifteen studies (reported in 13 papers) were included; 13 (86.6%) of the studies showed survival difference in favour of pleurodesis success. The median [interquartile range] difference in survival between the two groups among the different studies was five [3.5–5.8] months. Most of the included studies suffered moderate to severe risk of bias and, thus, large prospective studies of patients undergoing pleurodesis are required to ascertain this effect.

Highlights

Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is a common condition complicating the clinical course of about 50% of patients with disseminated malignancy [1]
A systematic review was carried out to explore this correlation and results suggest that there could be a survival difference according to pleurodesis outcome in patients with MPE
A systematic review of available literature was carried out to search for studies reporting on survival of patients with MPE who underwent pleurodesis and to inspect whether there was difference in survival according to pleurodesis outcome

Summary

Introduction

Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is a common condition complicating the clinical course of about 50% of patients with disseminated malignancy [1]. There is data to suggest there may be a survival benefit for patients with MPE who achieve successful pleurodesis. A systematic review was carried out to explore this correlation and results suggest that there could be a survival difference according to pleurodesis outcome in patients with MPE.

Results

Conclusion