Peter Hegyi, Moath Shatnawi, Anton Vavrečka, Marian Bátovský
A pancreatic-pleural fistula (PPF) is a rare complication of chronic pancreatitis. A precise incidence is unknown, various
authors present the 0.4 – 1 % incidence in patients with pancreatitis. Pulmonary symptoms occur much more frequently
than abdominal. The most frequent clinical symptom is dyspnoea, approximately 70 %. Pleural effusion caused by
the pancreatic-pleural fistula is mostly massive and relapsing, of a smaller volume, spontaneously receding and occurs
mainly as a complication of acute pancreatitis. The majority of patients have a left-sided pleural effusion (76 % of cases)
and most frequently the pancreatic-pleural fistula occurs in men at the age between forty to fifty.
In our case it is a patient with PPF manifesting with massive relapsing right-sided effusion.