INCIDENCE AND RISK FACTORS FOR PLEURAL EFFUSION IN PATIENTS VISITING TEACHING HOSPITALS IN LAHORE

Objective: The study aims to find causes of all the patients presented with pleural effusion to a tertiary care hospital in Lahore, Pakistan. Methods: study follows descriptive, cross sectional study design. It was conducted over a period of 6 months from January 2017 to June 2017. Total 100 cases who presented with pleural effusion were studied in this research. Results: Tuberculosis constituted 28% of pleural effusion cases followed by pneumonia 25% and malignancy 9% in exudative cases and CCF 13% and hepatic cirrhosis 8% in transudative cases. Conclusion: Tuberculosis is the most common cause of exudative pleural effusion while congestive cardiac failure is the most common cause of transudative pleural effusion with other diseases like infections, malignancies, liver cirrhosis also contributing to a significant extent. Key Words: pleural effusion, causes, adults