Comparing Outcome of Thoracocentesis and Pigtail Catheter Drainage in Treatment of Patients With Hepatic Hydrothorax

Hepatic hydrothorax (HH) is a pleural effusion that develops in a patient with cirrhosis and portal hypertension in the absence of cardiopulmonary disease (Lv et al., 2018). Several factors are known to contribute to the development of effusion; the most accepted mechanism of which is the direct delivery of ascitic fluid from the peritoneal cavity to the pleural cavity by "positive" intra-abdominal pressure and a "negative" intrathoracic pressure of the pleural cavity through microscopic congenital diaphragmatic defects (Han et al., 2022).