Abstract
Empyema remains a major source of morbidity and health care expenditure in the thoracic surgery community. Early intervention in pleural space infections is key to prevention of chronic empyemas and the need for surgical intervention. The advent of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery has made it possible to treat stage I and stage II empyemas with significantly less morbidity. Although management of chronic empyema remains a significant challenge, surgical intervention is usually successful in cleaning up the pleural space.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 431-440 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Thoracic Surgery Clinics |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2012 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Surgery
- Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine