Ligation of the thoracic duct without thoracotomy as an effective treatment for postoperative chylothorax: a newly designed surgical procedure.

We describe herein a newly designed surgical procedure for ligating the thoracic duct to treat postoperative chylothorax, without performing a thoracotomy. This technique was successfully performed on a 50-year-old man who developed chylothorax following resection of carcinoma of the esophagus whose case is briefly presented. The advantages of this procedure include the following: the integrity of the thorax is maintained, there is less traumatization, the need for a drainage tube is eliminated, shorter hospitalization is required, and the thoracic duct is much more easily exposed than by conventional transthoracic approaches. No similar report was found in our research of the literature.