In the Case Report by Mohammad Alhaji and Ruxana T Sadikot, ‘A 62-year-old female patient with left-sided pleural effusion’, which appeared in the October 2013 issue of Expert Rev. Respir. Med. (7[5], 455–458 [2013]; www.expert-reviews.com/doi/full/10.1586/17476348.2013.816567), it has been brought to our attention that the following inaccuracy appeared:
The original version of this article, published online on 18 October 2013, was published without the Abstract and Keywords sections. These sections (shown below) have now been added to the article.
Abstract
Hepatic hydrothorax is defined as a pleural effusion in patients with liver cirrhosis without primary cardiac, pulmonary or pleural disease. It is a rare but important cause of unilateral–pleural effusion. The prevalence of this complication is 5–10% of the total number of patients with advanced stages of cirrhosis. In most cases (85%), the effusion is right-sided; however, in 13% of cases it can be left-sided and bilateral in 2% of the cases. We present a case of left-sided hepatic hydrothorax in the absence of ascites in a patient with primary biliary cirrhosis. The diagnosis of cirrhosis was confirmed by the biopsy; the patient didn’t have any history or any signs or symptoms of cirrhosis prior to her presentation. In the case described, the patient was treated with spirnolactone, furosemide and ursodeoxycholic acid. At follow-up after six months since the diagnosis, she was responding to treatment with no complications. This case emphasizes the importance of considering hepatic hydrothorax as an etiology of a transudative pleural effusion regardless of the presence or absence of ascites in patients with occult cirrhosis.
Keywords: ascites • hepatic hydrothorax • pleural effusion • primary biliary cirrhosis
The authors and editors of Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine sincerely apologise for this error and any inconvenience caused.