Successful management of a chylothorax in infancy using a pleurectomy.

The management of chylothorax is described in three infants. Because none of them had had a direct injury to the thoracic duct, it was suspected that the chylothoraces had a significant chance of recurrence after simple ligation of the duct. To avoid recurrence, formal stripping of the parietal pleura was performed using a technique not previously reported in the literature. The operation was simple to perform and resulted in resolution of the chylothorax in all infants. The three cases and details of the surgical procedure are described.