THE DIAGNOSIS AND MANAGEMENT OF PLEURAL EMPYEMA

The diagnosis and management of pleural infection continues to improve steadily. Recent advances include: newer, smaller, and more comfortab le chest drainage catheters; improved pleural pus drainage with the ai d of intrapleural fibrinolytics; and improved surgical procedures incl uding thoracoscopic surgery. The optimal size of chest drainage tube r emains a matter of debate, with no large data sets available to clarif y the optimal tube size. In contrast, there are now small controlled t rials of sound basic methodology which suggest a therapeutic role for both fibrinolytics and thoracoscopy. Studies large enough to establish clearly the efficacy and safety of these approaches are now at the pl anning and recruitment stage. (C) 1998 Rapid Science Ltd.