Retrospective Study of Surgical Treatment of Thoracic Empyema in Adults

ABSTRACT

Background: Pleural space infection is common and causessignificant morbidity and mortality up to 10%. The propermanagement of empyema remains controversial, and patientsare often seen by a physician after their purulent process hasalready reached the fibrinopurulent or chronic stage. Thesepatients are often subjected to multiple procedures and longhospitalization before the empyema is successfully treated.Most cases are treated initially using antibiotics with or withoutrepeated thoracentesis or chest tube insertion. Surgicalapproaches, such as video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) oropen thoracotomy and decortications, are usually reserved forpatients with deteriorated clinical condition following failedconservative treatment, which in turn increase the mortalityrate.Aims and Objective: The aim of our retrospective study is toevaluate our experience with thoracic empyema over a 36-month period with special attention to procedures used,success rate of each procedure and outcome.Materials & Methods: A retrospective chart analysis onpatients in whom thoracic empyema was diagnosed fromMarch 2016 to March 2018 at Civil hospital, BJ Medicalcollege, Ahmedabad, India. was performed. The definition ofempyema was selected as any pleural fluid that was grosslypurulent, and/or had a positive Gram stain or culture andempyema were classified by etiology and culture results.Charts were reviewed for patients age, symptoms, underlyingdisease, etiology of empyema, culture results, diagnosticmodalities, duration of hospitalization, therapeutic intervention,date of procedures, complications, mortality and long-termoutcome.Results and Conclusion: Empyema thoracis is a cause ofhigh mortality in man and its occurrence is increasing in bothchildren and adults. Two guidelines documents on themanagement of empyema in adults have been published bythe ACCP and the BTS. Although they differ in their approachto management, they agree on that the pleural space shouldbe drained in all patients with exudative PPE with pleural fluidpH < 7.2 and in those who have frank pus in the pleural space.Patients who do not improve should be referred to the surgeonfor further management. A large randomized multi-centre trialhas shown no survival advantage with the use of intrapleuralstreptokinase in patients with pleural infection and the use ofstreptokinase has not prevented surgery in the group ofpatients studied. However, streptokinase enhances infectedpleural fluid drainage and may still be used in patients whohave large collection of infected pleural collection causingventilatory impairment.