Management of pleural sepsis in Nigerian children.

Outcome of tube thoracostomy in paediatric non-traumatic pleural fluid collections

“…This has also been found in previous study. [3,4,12] This study reveals a statistically significant tendency of negative culture of pleural aspirates with increase in age of patient. Table 4 shows that all four infants' pleural aspirates cultured bacteria (100%) while only one of the seven teenagers' pleural aspirates yielded positive bacterial growth (14%) (x 2 = 8.06, P = 0.045).…”

“…This major thoracic operation has been proven superior to tube thoracostomy in both adult and paediatric empyema thoracis, and can be utilized as the primary treatment. [2,3,8] Procedure-related complication rate was only about 3%. This is low when compared to other studies, [1,10] and could be attributable to the fact all cases of paediatric tube thoracostomies in the study centre are either undertaken by thoracic surgeon or supervised as such when done by resident doctors.…”

“…Bacteria isolated were identical to those of previous studies. [3,4] There was a high negative culture rate of 46.7%, which is attributed to pre-presentation antibiotic therapy either prescribed by a doctor or obtained from pharmacy or patent medicine shop without prescription. This has also been found in previous study.…”

“…[4,[6][7][8] In the study by Anyanwu et al, up to 39.4% of the pleural aspirates was culture-negative. [3] Other studies have made no demarcation between sterile pleural effusion and empyema thoracis when all pleural fluid collections are classified as pleural effusion. [10] The magnitude of primary pulmonary tuberculosis as the cause of pleural fluid collection is unexpectedly small in this study (16.7%).…”

“…[2,3] This is largely because of the persistently ravaging poverty, ignorance and infections. [4] The thoracic surgeons practicing in Nigeria are frequently consulted to review and manage paediatric patients presenting with nontraumatic pleural fluid collection.…”