On which side is pleural effusion in cardiac failure more common?

On which side is pleural effusion in cardiac failure more common?

Pleural effusion in congestive heart failure if it is unilateral, is found more often on right side. This is supposed to be due to the larger pleural surface of the right lung predisposing to transudation of more fluid. In one analysis, unilateral right-sided effusions were twice as common as left-sided effusions in CHF (28% vs 15%). That data also showed that bilateral pleural effusion is more common than unilateral pleural effusion in CHF.