Incidence of Postoperative Chylothorax Following Congenital Heart Surgery in Pediatric Patients: A Single-Center Experience

BACKGROUND Although postoperative chylothorax following congenital heart surgery occurs rarely, it is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. The incidence of postoperative chylothorax has been reported as 2% to 5%. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the incidence of postoperative chylothorax at our center and compared our results with those of other studies. METHODS Between January 2009 and December 2018, there were 2,515 congenital heart repair surgeries performed at our center. Thirty-six patients with postoperative chylothorax were enrolled in this study, and their medical records retrospectively were reviewed. We calculated the overall and surgery-specific incidences. We compared the data of the medical management group with those of the surgical management group. RESULTS The overall incidence of postoperative chylothorax was 1.4%. The incidence was highest for patients who underwent vascular ring repair (3/32). Moreover, the incidence was higher for single ventricle-related procedure than bi-ventricle-related procedures (5.6% versus 1.0%, P < .0001). Chylothorax was predominantly found on the left side (20/36). Among these cases, six patients died; three of these six were in the surgical management group. CONCLUSIONS The postoperative chylothorax incidence at our center was comparable to those of other centers. However, a reasonable protocol for postoperative chylothorax management to improve outcomes is necessary.