Survival of malignant and paramalignant pleural effusions in Ouagadougou

This study aimed to present the survival of patients with malignant and paramalignant pleural effusion (MPE) in a context of resource-limited countries. We retrospectively studied patients received for malignant and paramalignant pleural effusion in three health facilities in Ouagadougou from 1st August 2009 to 30 July 2015. Survival was analyzed according to various characteristics related to patients and disease. Eighty patients with a mean age of 54 years were selected. The sex-ratio was 0.9. Sixteen patients had comorbidities. Pleural effusion was revealing, synchronous and metachronous in respectively 55 %, 26.3 % and 17.5 % of cases. Lung cancer was the most common cause of MPE (27.5 %), followed by breast cancer (18.7 %). The median overall survival was 3 months; it varied between primary cancers: 5 months for primary cancer unknown, 4 months for lung cancers and 2 months for breast cancers. Sex and the presence of comorbidities were independent factors influencing survival of patients. In this study, patient survival length is strongly compromised by inadequacies of medical technical equipment.