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...

A 72-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for persistent right-sided chest pain for 6 months and osteolytic changes in some ribs on chest x-rays. The patient had a past history of pulmonary tuberculosis at 19 years of age and underwent treatment for rightsided therapeutic extrapulmonary pneumothorax. A computed tomography (CT) scan of her chest demonstrated a ring-enhanced tumor adjacent...

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...

OBJECTIVE Health care databases are a valuable source for epidemiological research in respiratory diseases if diagnoses are valid. We validated the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) diagnosis of pleural empyema in the Danish National Registry of Patients (DNRP). METHODS We randomly selected hospitalized patients registered in the DNRP with a discharge diagnosis ...

BACKGROUND Pleural empyema can be subdivided into 3 stages: exudative, multiloculated, and organizing. In the absence of clear septation, antibiotics plus simple drainage of pleural fluid is often sufficient treatment, whereas clear septation often requires more invasive treatment. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to report our experience and analyze the safety and efficacy of medical tho...