Introduction: Pediatric empyema is the most common complication of childhood pneumonia. Our aim is to share the characteristics and treatment methods of pediatric empyema treated with surgery. Materials and methods: 66 pediatric patients with pleural empyema were included in the study. Patients were classified as patients treated with tube thoracostomy and thoracotomy. The characteristics of th...

Enthusiasm for minimally invasive thoracic surgery is increasing. Thoracoscopy plays a significant therapeutic role in the fibrinopurulent stage (stage II) of empyema, in which loculated fluid cannot often be adequately drained by chest tube alone. For some debilitated and septic patients, further procedures such as open-window thoracostomy (OWT) with daily wound care or vacuum-assisted closure...

introduction: tube thoracostomy complications depend on the operator’s skill, patients’ general condition and the place in which the procedure is done. the present study aimed to compare the quality and complications of tube thoracostomy carried out by emergency medicine residents (emrs) and surgery residents (srs). methods: this cohort study was conducted on 18-60 years old trauma patients in ...

Tension pneumothorax and hemothorax are life-threatening emergencies that require immediate treatment. Field stabilization of trauma patients often requires rapid surgical drainage of these injuries but inevitably delays departure for hospital. Conventional treatment involves the insertion of a chest drain but we describe a modified technique of simple thoracostomy that is faster and simpler to...

Forty-eight patients with pleural effusions who had sonographically directed thoracocentesis were evaluated retrospectively for radiologic findings, pleural fluid chemistries, and outcome. Loculation was found to be a radiologic marker of diagnostic and prognostic significance. The presence of loculations correlated with exudative pleural fluid chemistries, but no radiologic finding was specifi...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To evaluate the clinical safety, efficacy, and cost of a small indwelling pleural catheter (7F, Turkel Safety Thoracentesis System [Sherwood, Davis, and Geck; St. Louis]) vs repeated needle thoracentesis or closed tube thoracostomy as a means to drain a large-volume pleural effusion. SETTING Inpatients in a tertiary care university teaching hospital in urban Chicago. DESIGN...

BACKGROUND Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is an extremely common problem affecting cancer patients, and thoracentesis is an essential procedure in an attempt to delineate the etiology of the fluid collections and to relieve symptoms in affected patients. One of the most common complications of thoracentesis is pneumothorax, which has been reported to occur in 20% to 39% of thoracenteses, with...