Chyle fistula in right cervical area after thyroid surgery

Pablo Priego Jiménez1, Mariá Vicenta Collado Guirao, Roberto Rojo Blanco

  • 1Department of General Surgery, Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain. papriego@hotmail.com

Thoracic duct injury is an infrequent (1-2.5%) but severe complication after neck surgery, leading to nutritional, metabolic and immunologic deficiencies. We report a case of a 34-year-old woman with a right thoracic duct injury after surgery of a thyroid medullar cancer effectively treated with conservative management (parenteral nutrition and intravenous somatostatin). Optimal treatment of these patients is unclear, without a clear limit between conservative and surgical treatment.