I have had a recurring pleural effusion from doing PD. My doc/clinic has not treated anyone with one before and tell me that it is relatively uncommon and not much literature on it out there. I had two chest taps with the first one followed by six weeks off pd to see if it would heal up on it's own. It seemed to be healed for a while, it did not recur for 10 weeks. The second one, I refused the chest tap, went off pd for another 6 weeks. (The fluid dissipated on its own.) The tihird one recurred right away the first night after restarting pd. This time I have remained on pd using the cycler, just reduced my volume from 2000 ml to 1500 ml, and changed from 4 x 2 hr dwell to 5 x 1.5 hr dwell. My numbers are fine I still have fluid around my rt lung but it does not really bother me other than some shortness of breath. I have been told the only real "cure" for this is a surgery called pleurodesis which doesn't sound like any fun at all! Or, switching to hemo which I also don't want to do. Just wondering if anyone else has had experienced a pleural effusion as a compliction of pd?

Also - I switched from CAPD to CCPD about six months ago. I had almost a full month's worth of manual bags left over. Is there anything I can do with them - I hate to waste anything! Is it allowed to give extra bags to another patient? Or do I just need to grit my teeth and go ahead and dump them?

the reason the physician wanted to do "the tap" was to see if there is actually Pd fluid seeping around the lungs from the peritoneum, or an accumulation of fluid due to other reasons. There are only 2 relative contraindications of why PD is not recommended: a.) the Peritoneal is unable to exchange waste products due to scarring of the peritoneal (due to such reasons as multi-surgeries), or b.) leakage of PD fluid into the plural space - this was why he wanted to do the tap. Keep in mind, that your shortage of breath, can tax your cardiac status, also should you get an infection, (flu, pneumonia), it may be harder to get resolved.

Regarding your extra bags, call your dialysis unit, see what suggestions they have....