Overview

Hepatic hydrothorax (HH) is a pleural effusion that develops in a patient with cirrhosis and portal hypertension in the absence of cardiopulmonary disease (Lv et al., 2018). Several factors are known to contribute to the development of effusion; the most accepted mechanism of which is the direct delivery of ascitic fluid from the peritoneal cavity to the pleural cavity by "positive" intra-abdominal pressure and a "negative" intrathoracic pressure of the pleural cavity through microscopic congenital diaphragmatic defects (Han et al., 2022).

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients who met the following inclusion criteria were enrolled:
• Liver cirrhosis (with or without hepatocellular carcinoma).
• Hepatic hydrothorax (bilateral or unilateral).

Exclusion Criteria:

• patients with a pleural effusion due to a condition other than HH.
• who had a diagnosis of tuberculosis pleurisy, parapneumonic effusion, inflammatory pleuritis, other neoplasms, and congestive heart failure.