A total of 20 patients aged 50.5 +/- 4.5 years with 24 chronic pleural effusions associated with lymphomas underwent 24 thoracoscopic talc poudrages. Effusions were serofibrinous (32%), hemorrhagic (41%), or chylous (27%). The mean volume of pleural liquid evacuated by repeated thoracenteses before thoracoscopy was 5.2 +/- 0.6 l. Thoracoscopic biopsies confirmed a lymphomatous infiltration of the pleura in 95.5% of cases. A definitive pleural symphysis was obtained in all cases but 2 (92% positive results): in 1 case, a further single thoracentesis of 400 ml was necessary, and in the 2nd case the patient died within 6 days from an acute evolution of her Hodgkin's disease. The mean drainage time was 4.8 +/- 0.2 days. Overall results are thus identical to those obtained in solid tumor-related pleural effusions (91% positive results).