361 Medical and Surgical Management of Empyema Mark S. Godfrey, MD1 Kyle T. Bramley, MD1 Frank Detterbeck, MD2 1 Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Yale New Haven Address for correspondence Frank Detterbeck, MD, 330 Cedar Street, Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut P.O. Box 208062, New Haven, CT 06520 2 Section of Thoracic Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine, (e-mail:
[email protected]). New Haven, Connecticut Semin Respir Crit Care Med 2019;40:361–374. Abstract Infection of the pleural space is an ancient and common clinical problem, the incidence which is on the rise. Advances in therapy now present clinicians of varying disciplines with an array of therapeutic options ranging from thoracentesis and chest tube drainage (with or without intrapleural fibrinolytic therapies) to video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) or thoracotomy. A framework is provided to guide decision making, which involves weighing multiple factors (clinical history and presentation, imaging characteristics, comorbidities); Keywords multidisciplinary collaboration and active management are needed as the clinical course ► empyema over a few days determines subsequent refinement. The initial choice of antibiotics depends ► pleural infection on whether the empyema is community-acquired or nosocomial, and clinicians must ► tissue plasminogen recognize that culture results often do not reflect the full disease process. Antibiotics alone activator are rarely successful and can be justified only in specific circumstances. Early drainage with ► deoxyribonuclease or without intrapleural fibrinolytics is usually required. This is successful in most patients; ► thoracoscopy however, when surgical decortication is needed, clear benefit and low physiologic impact ► video-assisted are more likely with early intervention, expeditious escalation of interventions, and care at a thoracic surgery center experienced with VATS.