Congenital Chylothorax of the Newborn: Diagnosis and Treatment in Three Pictures

There is general agreement regarding the evident need for an international, multicenter trial including long-term follow-up to establish the correct criteria for diagnosing and managing congenital chylothorax. In an attempt to identify these criteria, which could then be used to draft a prospective multicenter trial, we propose three flow-charts showing three algorithms that could be used to: 1) obtain a definitive diagnosis of pleural chylous effusion; 2) specifically focus on chyle leakage evolution and etiology of chylothorax; and 3) focus on the management of congenital chylothorax. The aim of the algorithms we propose is to build the basis on which a strongly needed multicenter trial might be structured.