• To enhance your knowledge of the treatment options for patients with malignant pleural effusion
• To learn about patients’ experiences of living at home with an indwelling pleural catheter
• To understand the potential benefits of self-led care in managing an indwelling pleural catheter at home
Malignant pleural effusion is a complication of advanced cancer that causes distressing dyspnoea (breathlessness). An indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) is an option for the management of recurrent effusions; however, patients’ experiences of IPC treatment have not been studied in detail.
This article describes a service evaluation that was undertaken to explore patients’ experiences of IPC treatment when discharged home following insertion. Ten patients with malignant pleural effusion undergoing IPC insertion participated in semi-structured interviews, and the data from these were thematically analysed using the framework method. It was found that most patients reported symptomatic improvement as a result of the IPC, but this did not correlate with functional improvement. One patient had no symptomatic or functional improvement and regretted having the procedure. The IPC was preferred by patients compared with other management interventions they had received previously. Further studies are required to identify which patients are unlikely to experience symptomatic benefit from the use of IPCs.
Primary Health Care. doi: 10.7748/phc.2022.e1777
Peer reviewThis article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software
Correspondence Conflict of interestNone declared
Kulendrarajah B, George V, Sundralingam A et al (2022) Indwelling pleural catheter insertion for the management of malignant pleural effusion: exploring patients’ experiences. Primary Health Care. doi: 10.7748/phc.2022.e1777
AcknowledgementsCatherine Henshall is a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) senior nurse and midwife research leader. She acknowledges the support of the NIHR Oxford cognitive health Clinical Research Facility. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care
Published online: 21 September 2022
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