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Some terminal cancer patients develop effusions of fluid in the pleural cavities which enclose the lungs. These effusions have a serious effect upon the well-being of the patient. Consequently, the patient's quality of life may be substantially improved by draining this fluid. Often tube drainage or the aspiration of fluid with a syringe is adequate. However, in some cases a shunt may be inserted to facilitate drainage into the peritoneal cavity, between the linings of the abdominal organs and the abdominal cavity. However, in a recent case, physicians observed a patient in whom the implantation of such a shunt resulted in the accumulation of ascites fluid in the patient's abdominal cavity. Sometimes such fluid accumulation results from the presence of cancer cells in the peritoneal cavity, but malignant cells could not be observed in this case. On the presumption that ascites was a result of shunting the pleural fluid, a new shunt was implanted to return the pleural fluid to the venous circulation. Ascites did not recur after the shunt was changed. The patient died six months later of multiple lung metastases. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)