Impact of Pleural Manometry on Chest Discomfort After Therapeutic Thoracentesis

Manometry- Versus Symptom-Guided Large Volume Thoracentesis: a Randomized Controlled Study

This randomized controlled trial attempts to determine whether the measurement of pleural pressures during therapeutic thoracentesis affects the development of chest discomfort after the procedure. During thoracentesis, pleural fluid is drained from the pleural space, resulting in lung expansion. In some cases, the lung is not completely re-expandable, in which case continued drainage results in the development of negative pleural pressures and chest discomfort. Negative pleural pressures may also result in other complications such as re-expansion pulmonary edema and pneumothorax. The identification of negative pleural pressures via manometry during the procedure may lead to a reduction in the complication rate.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Pleural Effusion
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Manometry-guided thoracentesis; Other: Symptom-guided thoracentesis

Detailed Description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To study the impact of pleural manometry on the development of chest discomfort during therapeutic thoracentesis compared to conventional symptom-guided thoracentesis.

OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

ARM I: Patients undergo manometry-guided therapeutic thoracentesis.

ARM II: Patients undergo symptom-guided thoracentesis.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 89
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Tennessee
    • Nashville, Tennessee, United States, 37232
      • Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 19 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Referral to pulmonary or interventional radiology services for large-volume thoracentesis

• Presence of a symptomatic moderate or large free-flowing pleural effusion on the basis of:

  • Chest radiograph: effusion filling >= 1/3 the hemithorax, OR
  • Computed tomography (CT)-scan: maximum anteroposterior (AP) depth of the effusion >= 1/3 of the AP dimension on the axial image superior to the hemidiaphragm, including atelectatic lung completely surrounded by effusion, OR
  • Ultrasound: effusion spanning at least three rib spaces with depth of >= 3 cm

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inability to provide informed consent

• Study subject has any disease or condition that interferes with safe completion of the study including:

  • Coagulopathy, with criteria left at the discretion of the operator
  • Hemodynamic instability with systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg or heart rate > 120 beats/min, unless deemed to be stable with these values by the attending physicians
• Pleural effusion is smaller than expected on bedside pre-procedure ultrasound
• Referral is for diagnostic thoracentesis only
• Manometry felt to be clinically indicated
• Inability to assume or maintain a seated position for the procedure
• Presence of multiple loculations on bedside pre-procedure ultrasound

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Arm I: Manometry-guided thoracentesis; Intervention Group - Patients undergo fine needle- aspiration, called therapeutic thoracentesis, to drain fluid accumulated around the lung. Unlike Arm II, the intervention group will have their pleural pressure monitored during the procedure.	Other: Manometry-guided thoracentesis; Arm I will undergo a standard of care therapeutic thoracentesis procedure, and in addition include pleural pressure monitoring (via an FDA-approved digital manometer) which is also standard of care but left at the discretion of physicians as per expert recommendations. In this group, the procedure will be stopped when the patient develops symptoms or when all the fluid has been removed, and will also be stopped if the pressure begins to fall quickly in the fluid collection.; Other: Symptom-guided thoracentesis; Arm II will undergo a standard of care therapeutic thoracentesis procedure. In this group, the procedure but will be stopped when the patient develops symptoms or when all the fluid has been removed.
Active Comparator: Arm II: Symptom-guided thoracentesis; Comparison Group - Patients undergo symptom-guided thoracentesis, the current standard-of-care is to drain fluid until 1) it is all gone or 2) a symptom occurs that indicates the lung may take longer to fully re-expand and drainage should be stopped.	Other: Symptom-guided thoracentesis; Arm II will undergo a standard of care therapeutic thoracentesis procedure. In this group, the procedure but will be stopped when the patient develops symptoms or when all the fluid has been removed.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Difference in post-procedure chest discomfort scores between control (symptom-guided) and intervention (manometry-guided) groups	As measured in millimeters along a 10 cm Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The estimated minimal clinically important difference is 15 mm. Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, and ranges will be presented. Investigations for outliers and assumptions for statistical analysis, e.g., normality and homoscedasticity will be made. If necessary, data will be transformed using Box-Cox power transformation. Comparisons between groups, i.e. intervention versus (vs) control, will be made using the t-test or Wilcoxon Rank Sum test. Mixed model will be employed to assess the trend of pain score measured across pre-, intra-, and post-procedure.	one-time assessment, 5 minutes after thoracentesis catheter is removed (on day 1)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Incidence of pneumothorax	Assessed as either present or absent on the immediate post-procedure chest radiograph per radiologist interpretation. Descriptive statistics including percentages and frequencies will be presented. Investigations for outliers and assumptions for statistical analysis, e.g., normality and homoscedasticity will be made. If necessary, data will be transformed using Box-Cox power transformation. Comparisons between groups, i.e. intervention vs control, will be made using the Chi-square test.	20 minutes after thoracentesis catheter is removed (on day 1)
Incidence of clinically-significant re-expansion pulmonary edema	Assessed as present if immediate post-procedure chest radiograph demonstrates new pulmonary edema per radiologist interpretation when compared to pre-procedure radiograph in the hemithorax that underwent thoracentesis, and subject has post-procedure new-onset or worsened hypoxic respiratory failure. Descriptive statistics including percentages and frequencies will be presented. Investigations for outliers and assumptions for statistical analysis, e.g., normality and homoscedasticity will be made. If necessary, data will be transformed using Box-Cox power transformation. Comparisons between groups, i.e. intervention vs control, will be made using the Chi-square test.	20 minutes after thoracentesis catheter is removed (on day 1)
Change in chest discomfort scores from pre-procedure to post-procedure.	As measured in millimeters along a 10 cm Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, and ranges will be presented. Investigations for outliers and assumptions for statistical analysis, e.g., normality and homoscedasticity will be made. If necessary, data will be transformed using Box-Cox power transformation. Comparisons between groups, i.e. intervention versus (vs) control, will be made using the t-test or Wilcoxon Rank Sum test. Mixed model will be employed to assess the trend of pain score measured across pre-, intra-, and post-procedure.	From 1 minute pre-procedure to 5 minutes after thoracentesis catheter is removed (on day 1)
Incidence of complete lung re-expansion, as assessed by post-procedure chest radiograph	Descriptive statistics including percentages and frequencies will be presented. Investigations for outliers and assumptions for statistical analysis, e.g., normality and homoscedasticity will be made. If necessary, data will be transformed using Box-Cox power transformation. Comparisons between groups, i.e. intervention vs control, will be made using the Chi-square test.	20 minutes after thoracentesis catheter is removed (on day 1)
Duration of procedure	Measured in seconds, assessed from the time the thoracentesis catheter is introduced to the time the catheter is removed. Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, and ranges will be presented. Investigations for outliers and assumptions for statistical analysis, e.g., normality and homoscedasticity will be made. If necessary, data will be transformed using Box-Cox power transformation. Comparisons between groups, i.e. intervention vs control, will be made using the t-test or Wilcoxon Rank Sum test.	during the procedure, on day 1, intraoperative
Change in subjective report of dyspnea	Assessed in millimeters along a 10 cm Visual Analog Scale (VAS), from pre-procedure (baseline) to 5 minutes after completion of the procedure. Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, and ranges will be presented. Investigations for outliers and assumptions for statistical analysis, e.g., normality and homoscedasticity will be made. If necessary, data will be transformed using Box-Cox power transformation. Comparisons between groups, i.e. intervention vs control, will be made using either the t-test or Wilcoxon Rank Sum test.	From 1 minute pre-procedure to 5 minutes after thoracentesis catheter is removed (on day 1)
Incidence of radiographically-apparent re-expansion pulmonary edema	Assessed as present if immediate post-procedure chest radiograph demonstrates new pulmonary edema per radiologist interpretation when compared to pre-procedure radiograph in the hemithorax that underwent thoracentesis. Descriptive statistics including percentages and frequencies will be presented. Investigations for outliers and assumptions for statistical analysis, e.g., normality and homoscedasticity will be made. If necessary, data will be transformed using Box-Cox power transformation. Comparisons between groups, i.e. intervention vs control, will be made using the Chi-square test	20 minutes after thoracentesis catheter is removed (on day 1)
Volume of pleural fluid removed by the thoracentesis procedure	Measured in milliliters. Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, and ranges will be presented. Investigations for outliers and assumptions for statistical analysis, e.g., normality and homoscedasticity will be made. If necessary, data will be transformed using Box-Cox power transformation. Comparisons between groups, i.e. intervention vs control, will be made using the t-test or Wilcoxon Rank Sum test.	immediately after the thoracentesis catheter is removed, on day 1

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Trend in VAS pain scores up to the point at which 1.5L of fluid is removed	at time of procedure

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
• Collaborators: National Cancer Institute (NCI)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Fabien Maldonado, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Lester M, Maldonado F, Rickman OB, Roller LJ, Avasarala SK, Katsis JM, Lentz RJ. Association between terminal pleural elastance and radiographic lung re-expansion after therapeutic thoracentesis in patients with symptomatic pleural effusion: a post-hoc analysis of a randomised trial. BMJ Open. 2022 Jul 12;12(7):e053606. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053606.
• Lentz RJ, Lerner AD, Pannu JK, Merrick CM, Roller L, Walston C, Valenti S, Goddard T, Chen H, Huggins JT, Rickman OB, Yarmus L, Psallidas I, Rahman NM, Light RW, Maldonado F. Routine monitoring with pleural manometry during therapeutic large-volume thoracentesis to prevent pleural-pressure-related complications: a multicentre, single-blind randomised controlled trial. Lancet Respir Med. 2019 May;7(5):447-455. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(18)30421-1. Epub 2019 Feb 13.

Helpful Links

• Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Find a Clinical Trial

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 26, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): March 8, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 18, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 5, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): February 9, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 26, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 24, 2019
• Last Verified: September 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Respiratory Tract Diseases; Pleural Diseases; Pleural Effusion
• Other Study ID Numbers: VICC THO 1593; P30CA068485 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract); NCI-2015-02267 (Registry Identifier: CTRP (Clinical Trial Reporting Program))