Background: Iodopovidone increasingly used as pleurodesis agent through chest tube .There is no agreement about the duration of tube clamping after instillation of the agent. OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of tube clamping time on the success rate and safety of iodopovidone as a local chemical pleurodesis agent in patients with malignant pleural effusions. METHODS: Patients with malignant pleural effusion were prospectively randomized into 2 groups (A response rates, complication rates and duration of procedures within whole group, group A and group B were compared. RESULTS: 96 Pleurodesis procedures were performed in 90 patients. The response was complete in 58 (60.4%) and partial in 27 (28%), and the overall success rate was 88.6 %. In group A (n = 47), 29 demonstrated complete and 13 demonstrated partial response, with 89.4% success rate .Success was 87.7% in group B, with complete response in 29 and partial response in 14 patients. Success rates were similar in the two groups (P = 1.202). Of 96 procedures, complications were observed in 29 (30.3%), and complication rates were 32% and 28.6% in groups A and B, respectively. The most frequent complications were chest pain and fever. CONCLUSIONS: Iodopovidone is an effective, safe, inexpensive and easily available sclerosing agent for chemical pleurodesis in malignant pleural effusion. The response rates and complications of pleurodesis were found to be similar regardless of duration of tube clamping.
Mohamed et al. (Sun,) studied this question.