My mother has been diagnosed with NSCLC. She is currently in the hospital with bilateral chest tubes to drain pleural fluid. Her right lung has a small pneumothorax (air leak) which is presenting a problem- her thoracic surgeon says that he cannot remove her chest tube and replace with PleurX catheter (pigtail) with the pneumothorax present. This is holding up her treatment as her oncologists do not want to administer chemo while she still has the chest tube (due to risk of infection). Has anyone ever been in this situation? If so, how long did you wait and/or what did you do to resolve the pneumothorax if it didn't go away on its own? Unfortunately my mom is not a candidate for pleurodesis.
Her pulmonolgist has referred her to an interventional pulmonary specialist to perform a procedure to "seal" the pneumothorax by way of introducing a type of bio-sealant (like a human concrete or glue) via bronchoscopy to resolve the pneumothorax. Has anyone ever been in this situation or had this type of procedure? I am trying to learn more information about it and would also like to seek out a professional 2nd opinion, but first wanted to ask if anyone in this group has actually had this procedure done before.
