ArticleFrontiers in surgery2024
Innovation: ice cream in the recovery room rules out chylothorax after thoracic lymphadenectomy and affords same-day chest tube removal.
Article in Frontiers in surgery, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Incidence and management outcomes of chylothorax after pulmonary resection for primary lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Pooled it
- Improving quality outcomes via process improvements and innovation: the largest single-surgeon series of 1,701 consecutive robotic lobectomy and segmentectomy cases.Frontiers in surgery · 2025Article
- Is it safe to remove the chest tube in the operating room after robotic lobectomy, segmentectomy, and wedge resection with lymphadenectomy?Frontiers in surgery · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objectives: Early removal of chest tubes reduces pain and morbidity. This study aimed to remove chest tubes immediately after robotic pulmonary resection with complete thoracic lymphadenectomy by administering ice cream to rule out chylothorax. Methods: This quality improvement study utilized prospectively gathered data from one thoracic surgeon. Patients were given 3.6 fl oz of ice cream in the recovery room within 1 h after their operation. Chest tubes were removed within 4 h if there was no chylous drainage and air leak on the digital drainage system. Results: From January 2022 to August 2023, 343 patients underwent robotic pulmonary resection with complete thoracic lymphadenectomy. The median time to ingest the ice cream was 1.5 h after skin closure. The incidence of chylothorax was 0.87% (3/343). Two patients were diagnosed with chylothorax after consuming ice cream within 4 h of surgery. One patient, whose chest tube remained in place due to an air leak, had a chylothorax diagnosed on postoperative day 1 (POD1). All three patients were discharged home on POD1 with their chest tubes in place, adhering to a no-fat, medium-chain triglyceride diet. All chylothoraces resolved within 6 days. None of the remaining patients developed chylothorax postoperatively with a minimum follow-up period of 90 days. Conclusions: Providing ice cream to patients after pulmonary resection and complete thoracic lymphadenectomy is an effective and reliable technique to rule out chylothorax early in the postoperative period and facilitates early chest tube removal. Further studies are needed to ensure that this simple, inexpensive test is reproducible.
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