BACKGROUND Surgery is routinely recommended for lumbar lipomyelomeningocele, especially in the setting of tethered cord syndrome. The most common complications are wound infections and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, which remain confined to the surgical site. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no prior reports relating an intracranial subdural empyema following detethering surgery. ...

Empyema is a problem faced by clinicians worldwide. Most cases are caused by Gram-positive organisms, such as streptococci and staphylococci. Empyema caused by Capnocytophaga spp. is extremely uncommon (H. Bonatti et al., Clin. Microbiol. Infect. 9:380-387, 2003). We present a unique case of a polymicrobial empyema, with a predominance of Capnocytophaga sputigena, in an older patient with no hi...

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a common causative agent for childhood pneumonia. However, empyema is a rare presentation. We report a case of a previously well child who presented with a right-sided empyema. M. pneumoniae was confirmed serologically with evidence of a four-fold rise in Mycoplasma IgM titre. The empyema required drainage procedures for more than two weeks. The infection resolved with ...

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...

A 36−year−old man with organizing right pleural empyema was treated by decortication, however the lung failed to expand. Intraoperative bronchoscopy disclosed foreign body (chicken bone) obstructing the right main bronchus. Extraction of the foreign body was followed by immediate expansion of the lung and uneventful recovery. Pleural empyema may be caused by a foreign body obstructing bronchus....

Bilateral empyema associated to infectious pericarditis is an extremely rare, yet life-threatening condition. Pleuroscopy-medical thoracoscopy has proved its efficacy in series of patients with empyema. Yet, all reported cases treated by this technique, concerned patients with pleural infection located to a single hemithorax. We present the case of a 71-year-old man with bilateral empyema treat...

OBJECTIVE to analyze the associated factors with empyema in patients with post-traumatic retained hemothorax. METHODS prospective observational study. Data were collected in patients undergoing PD during emergency duty. Variables analyzed were age, sex, mechanism of injury, side of the chest injury, intrathoracic complications of RH, laparotomy, specific injuries, rib fractures, trauma scores...

Aim: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is now a gold standard in treating early-stage empyema, while much debate still exists considering the effectiveness of this approach for late-stage empyema. Most concerns arise from crowded rib cage, narrow working space, and ability to free trapped lungs quickly, mainly if uniportal VATS used. However, unlike lobectomy, there no consensus about...

BACKGROUND Pleural separation, the "split pleura" sign, has been reported in patients with empyema. However, the diagnostic yield of the split pleura sign for complicated parapneumonic effusion (CPPE)/empyema and its utility for differentiating CPPE/empyema from parapneumonic effusion (PPE) remains unclear. This differentiation is important because CPPE/empyema patients need thoracic drainage. ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of streptokinase and deoxyribonuclease (DNase) on the viscosity of pus to assess whether the DNase in the old preparation of streptokinase-streptodornase used intrapleurally to treat empyema was contributing to easier drainage of pus compared with purified streptokinase. DESIGN In vitro measurement of pus viscosity. PATIENTS Pus from three patients...