Dr. Mehdi Qiabi successfully defended his Master's thesis entitled PLeurodesis Using hypertonic Glucose administration to treat post-operative air leaks following lung resection surgery (PLUG): Phase I trial on March 16, 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Richard Malthaner. His thesis was published in the Western Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository, which can be accessed here: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7773/. Dr. Qiabi will be awarded his MSc in Surgery at Western University at Spring Convocation.
His study, performed at LHSC throughout the past year, consisted of injecting a sugar solution into the chest of patients who had not fully healed after surgery for cancer. The goal was to decrease air leak from the surgical site enabling patients to go home sooner. This novel method was well tolerated and showed promise as a safe and effective future management of air leaks. The next step will be to continue the work on a larger scale. Dr. Qiabi's work will be presented at the European Society of Thoracic Surgeon's annual meeting in June 2021.
The graph below shows the decrease in the air leak (blue line) after the sugar was injected on a patient. The blood sugar increased and went back to normal within a few hours with no consequence.
