Incidence of complications from indwelling pleural catheter for pleural effusion: A meta‐analysis

Indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) is widely used in patients with pleural effusion (PE). This meta‐analysis aimed to comprehensively summarize the clinical complication from IPC. We searched four large electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Cochrane Library) for potentially relevant studies and assessed the included studies’ quality using the methodological index for nonrandomized studies’ criteria. Extracted data were used to pool rates, and to conduct subgroup and meta–regression analyses. Forty‐one studies involving a cumulative 4983 patients with 5650 IPCs were included in this meta‐analysis. The overall incidence of IPC complications was 20.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 15.0–26.3). The top four complications were: overall infection incidence 5.7% (95% CI: 0.7–2.4); overall catheter abnormality incidence 4.4% (95% CI: 2.8–6.3); pain incidence 1.2% (95% CI: 0.4–2.4); and overall loculation incidence 0.9% (95% CI: 0.1–2.1). Subgroup and meta‐regression analyses for overall complications and infections by country, PE site, and PE type demonstrated these factors did not contribute significantly to heterogeneity. Further subgroup analyses for infection of benign PE showed that the overall infection incidence (12.6% [95% CI: 8.1–17.8] vs 0.7% [95% CI: 0.0–4.5]) and empyema incidence (9.1% [95% CI: 5.3–13.8] vs 0.0% [95% CI: 0.0–2.3]) of patients with liver‐related PE were significantly higher than that of patients with heart‐related PE. Our meta‐analysis showed reliable pooled incidences of IPC‐related complications, with infection being the most common. These results serve to remind clinicians about the incidence of IPC‐related complications and emphasize the importance of taking corresponding preventive and therapeutic steps.