A female patient who presented with left empyema thoracis caused by Actinomyces odontolyticus is reported. She responded to treatment with penicillin and metronidazole but after 3 weeks developed leucopenia complicated by gram-negative septicaemia. Leucopenia improved rapidly on withdrawal of metronidazole. Treatment was continued with a prolonged course of penicillin and she made an uneventful...

Fungal empyema thoracis is a rare and emerging entity, the increase in rate of fungal infections mainly due to increasing use broad-spectrum antibiotics, intravascular devices, hyperalimentation, as well number critically ill or immunocompromised patients. Candida species are most common pathogens thoracis, it extremely isolate fungi such pleural fluid. We report here 60-year-old male with case...

OBJECTIVES Fungal empyema thoracis (FET) is a rare life-threatening infection. We sought to describe the clinical characteristics of FET in a large academic cancer center. METHODS We conducted a retrospective chart review of all cancer patients who had a fungal isolate from the pleural fluid culture between 1/2005 and 8/2013. RESULTS A total of 106 fungal isolates were identified in 97 pati...

BACKGROUND Patients are often referred to thoracic units for management of empyema after the acute phase has been treated with antibiotics but without adequate drainage. This study evaluates the effects of delay in surgical treatment of empyema thoracis on morbidity and mortality. METHODS Thirty nine consecutive patients were studied from January 1991 to June 1992. Two groups (group 1, 16 pat...

Empyema thoracis (ET) is defined as pus in the pleural space, either localized or involving entire cavity, due to diverse etiologies. In severe form, it may infiltrate extrapulmonary region. Clinical guideline describes 3 stages of parapneumonic effusion before developing into an ET, namely exudative stage, fibrinopurulent and organizing/late stage. We highlight a 59-year-old gentleman who pres...

We read with interest the article on pulmonary nocardiosis in southern Taiwan by Chen et al. In their study, eight of the 20 patients with pulmonary nocardiosis had pleural effusion and three of these patients had empyema thoraces. Among these three nocardial empyema cases, the authors reported a 61-year-old man with diabetes mellitus and chronic liver disease suffering from an acute course of ...