Introduction

The clinical aplicattion of pleural pressure monitoring include the prevention of complications associated with large volume thoracentesis,diagnosis of unexpandable lung and predicting pleurodesis success.

Objective: Evaluate the routine monitoring of pleural pressure with manometry and implementation of the technique by the nursing team.

Material and methods: Observational and prospective study in patients with an indication for thoracentesis.Chest ultrasound,pleural manometry,and thoracentesis were performed on the same day as the procedure.Manometry was performed using a water column manometer and pleural pressure was systematically recorded after each 200 ml of pleural fluid drainaged.

Variables:Etiology of the pleural effusion(PE), characteristics of the pleural fluid,duration and tolerance of the technique,pleural elastance(PEL),total volume of pleural fluid drained, and complications.

Results:19 patients with a mean age of 68+/-10 were included. In 74% of patients the etiology of the PE was oncological.In 63% of procedures,>1000 ml of pleural fluid was obtained.Manometry could be performed in 100% of patients without complications.68,4% of patients presented a PEL< 14,5 cm H2O.The mean duration of the intervention was 27+/- 5 min.85% of patients tolerated the procedure with a score of 9 visual analog scale.The most frequent symptoms were chest pain in 4 patients and cough in 7 patients.

Conclusions

-Pleural manometry performed during thoracentesis is a well-tolerated technique that allows obtaining a large volum of plaural fluid.

-The routine use of manometry during thoracentesis need to be confirmed in future studies.