Empyema thoracis: Controversies and technical hints

Empyema Thoracis

Epmyema thoracis is associated with high mortality ranging between 6% to 24%. The incidence of empyema is increasing in both children and adults; the cause of this surge is unknown. Most cases of empyema complicate community- or hospital-acquired pneumonia but a proportion results from iatrogenic causes or develops without pneumonia. Parapneumonic effusions (PPE) develop in about one half of th...

Empyema thoracis: management outcome.

BACKGROUND Empyema thoracis results from postpneumonic effusion of bacterial origin or trauma. If untreated it may convert to fibro-purulent or an organising stage. METHODS This study was conducted at cardiothoracic unit of Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad from Jan 2008 to Aug 2009. Patients with diagnosis of empyema thoracic were studied. Their clinical features and investigations were reco...

Treatment of empyema thoracis.

Bilateral Suspected Tuberculous Empyema Thoracis

Empyema thoracis is a well known complication following para-pneumonic effusions in paediatric age group. Usually it is unilateral but rarely could be bilateral. Herein we report a case of bilateral tuberculous empyema thoracis in a 12 years old, unvaccinated girl with a positive history of contact with tuberculosis. She was managed conservatively with tube thoracostomies and anti-tuberculous d...

Empyema Thoracis from Salmonella Choleraesuis

To the Editor: The clinical presentations of nontyphoidal Salmonella infection are protean, including gastroenteritis (most common), bacteremia, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, and endovascular infection. (1). Despite the growing number of patients with invasive infection due to nontyphoid Salmonella, reports of thoracic empyema due to these organisms remain rare (2–6). We searched the compute...