[Nutritional treatment for bronchopleural fistula-promising effect of arginine as a pharmaconutrient].

Pharmaconutrition, which is a supportive nutritional care of surgical patients, has been proven to shorten hospital stay, decrease the incidence of infection, and reduce hospital costs in selected groups of patients. Arginine, one of the most essential pharmaconutrients, has also been proven to enhance would healing process. In severely malnourished patients like bronchopleural fistula with resultant empyema, aggressive nutritional approach should be mandatory. And management of the fistula is also important in stabilizing the ongoing infection. Our hypothesis was that basic nutritional support enhanced with arginine would be effective in not only improving the general condition including nutritional status but also in healing the fistula. We report a case of major bronchopleural fistula in which arginine-supplemented diet as well as aggressive nutritional support could accelerate the postoperative recovery after open thoracic window, ultimately leading to the healing of the fistula.