OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of postoperative continuous pleural lavage (PCPL) after thoracotomy for the treatment of stage 2 pleural empyema in relation to postoperative length of stay and morbidity. METHODS Stage 2 pleural empyema was diagnosed with computer tomography. Conservative treatment including antibiotics and pleural aspiration was introduced. 89 patients treated for stage 2 pleu...

UNLABELLED We presented three cases of influenza-related severe pneumonia/empyema that occurred in one season. CASE 1 A 76-year-old diabetic man, developed empyema as a result of severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) secondary to Haemophilus influenzae, as confirmed on sputum culture. Nasal swab was positive for influenza A antigen. After drainage of empyema, intravenous peramivir and pip...

Objective: In an attempt to establish a treatment protocol for tuberculous empyema, we retrospectively reviewed our experience over a 3year period. Methods: Between January 1996 and December 1998, 26 patients (23 male and three female) with an average age of 33.8 years (range 18±61 years) presented with tuberculous empyema. The empyema was right-sided in 13, left-sided in 12 and bilateral in on...

Posttraumatic empyema is a rare complication of trauma with an incidence of 1.6-2.4% in trauma patients. However, it is rarely reported in children. We report the case of a 15-year-old boy who was involved in a traffic accident and diagnosed with a pulmonary contusion at a local hospital. Fourteen days after the accident, posttraumatic empyema thoracis and lung abscess developed with clinical p...

We describe the case of a 79-year-old man who presented with an enlarging mass on his chest wall. He had a history of thoracoplasty performed 55 years ago for treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. The mass was subsequently proven to be the result of empyema neccesitans caused by reactivation tuberculosis. Empyema neccesitans is a well described entity in which an empyema spontaneously decompress...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To investigate the efficacy of video-assisted thoracoscopic sterilization to treat patients with exacerbation of chronic empyema thoracis. DESIGN Case reports and literature review. SETTING Academic department of surgery. PATIENTS Two elderly, debilitated patients with worsening, chronic empyema thoracis as diagnosed by radiographs, CT, and thoracentesis. Both patients had...

Little is known regarding typical neuropsychological outcomes of intracranial empyema, a rare complication of sinusitis marked by accumulation of purulent material adjacent to the brain. A 15-year-old, right-handed male presented with a 3-day history of congestion, lethargy, fever, headache, dizziness, unequal pupil dilation, and right-sided facial droop. Computed tomography revealed right-side...

Few diseases conform so seldom to their classical book diagnosis as empyema or purulent pleurisy in its various types. If even the majority of cases showed consecutive layers from below upwards on one side of the chest, of dullness with absent breath sounds and increased vocal resonance and fretnitus, aegophony, and then tubular breathing, with displacement of the heart to the opposite side, th...

Streptococcus bovis is an uncommon cause of meningitis and subdural empyema. We report one case each of meningitis and subdural empyema in which S. bovis biotype II was isolated from both the spinal fluid and blood. In one case, the organisms were seen on a gram-stained preparation of cerebrospinal fluid. The first patient presented with gastrointestinal symptoms of unknown etiology, was immuno...

The optimal management of paediatric empyema thoracis remains controversial. The objective of the study was to analyse evolving experience in clinical presentation, management, outcome and factors contributing to adverse morbidity in thoracic empyema. Forty-seven patients presenting to a paediatric surgical centre were studied in three consecutive 6-y periods during 1980-97 to compare any chang...