UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Medicine, Division of Hospital MedicineDocument Type
EditorialPublication Date
2018-09-01Keywords
Bacterial Infections and MycosesDiagnosis
Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms
Respiratory Tract Diseases
Surgery
Surgical Procedures, Operative
Therapeutics
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In the USA, one million patients diagnosed with pneumonia are admitted each year and among these, 32,000 patients develop empyema (1,2). Empyema is associated with a high morbidity and mortality (2,3). Empyema was first described by Hippocrates 2,400 years ago. He also performed the first pleural drainage when he created a burr hole to drain the infected fluids and performed daily irrigation (4). Thoracic empyema is defined as either presence of bacterial organisms and/or presence of grossly purulent fluid in the pleural cavity. A positive culture is not required for diagnosis of patients previously on antibiotics. As well, in the case when a sampling was taken of the inflammatory fluid from around the infected empyema fluid, or in anaerobic bacterial infections which are difficult to be cultured.Source
J Thorac Dis. 2018 Sep;10(Suppl 26):S3069-S3070. doi: 10.21037/jtd.2018.08.55. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.21037/jtd.2018.08.55Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/40796PubMed ID
30370082Related Resources
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.21037/jtd.2018.08.55