OBJECTIVES Chest drains are routinely placed in children following cardiac surgery. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of a clinically relevant pneumothorax and/or pleural effusion after drain removal and to ascertain if a chest radiograph can be safely avoided following chest drain removal.

METHODS This single-centre retrospective cohort study included all patients under 18 years of age who underwent cardiac surgery between January 2015 and December 2019 with the insertion of mediastinal and/or pleural drains. Exclusion criteria were chest drain/s in situ ≥14 days and mortality prior to removal of chest drain/s. A drain removal episode was defined as the removal of ≥1 drains during the same episode of analgesia ± sedation. All chest drains were removed using a standard protocol. Chest radiographs following chest drain removal were reviewed by 2 investigators.

RESULTS In all, 1076 patients were identified (median age: 292 days, median weight: 7.8 kg). There were 1587 drain removal episodes involving 2365 drains [mediastinal (n = 1347), right pleural (n = 598), left pleural (n = 420)]. Chest radiographs were performed after 1301 drain removal episodes [mediastinal (n = 1062); right pleural (n = 597); left pleural (n = 420)]. Chest radiographs were abnormal after 152 (12%) drain removal episodes [pneumothorax (n = 43), pleural effusion (n = 98), hydropneumothorax (n = 11)]. Symptoms/signs were present in 30 (2.3%) patients. Eleven (<1%) required medical management. One required reintubation and 2 required chest drain reinsertion.

CONCLUSIONS The incidence of clinically significant pneumothorax/pleural effusion following chest drain removal after paediatric cardiac surgery is low (<1%). Most patients did not require reinsertion of a chest drain. It is reasonable not to perform routine chest radiographs following chest drain removal in most paediatric cardiac surgical patients.