Blood pleurodesis: thoracotomy patients and air leaks.

D evelopment of an air leak is not an unusual occurrence for a patient with a thoracotomy (Cerfolio & Bryant, 2008). However, air leaks that persist for more than 5 days increase hospital length of stay (LOS), risk of infection, and cost of care. Limited treatment options are available currently for patients with persistent air leaks. One treatment form, blood pleurodesis, requires nurses to give careful attention to preparing and assisting a patient. A Medline search ranging from 1948 to 2009 was conducted using the following key words: blood pleurodesis, persistent air leak, nursing care. This search resulted in a number of medical articles describing blood pleurodesis. No literature was found regarding nursing care. Medline and CINAHL searches were performed in February 2012 using the same key words to assess more current literature. No articles relating to nursing care were found in this search.