Chylothorax treated via thoracic duct ligation and omentalization

Chylothorax is an uncommon, potentially life-threatening disease of dogs and cats. Medical records of 12 animals (five dogs and seven cats) undergoing surgical management of chylothorax from 2001 to 2005 were reviewed. All animals received thoracic duct ligation and thoracic omentalization. In some cases, a combination of subtotal pericardectomy and/or pleural stripping was also employed. All animals survived surgery, and none was lost to follow-up. Median survival time for cats was 209 days (range 2 to 1328 days), and for dogs it was 211 days (range 7 to 991 days). Although postoperative mortality was higher than in other recent studies, no complications could be directly attributed to thoracic omentalization. A controlled, prospective study is needed to compare outcomes of this management method to those of other methods.