Thoracoscopic Drainage and Decortication as Definitive Treatment for Empyema Thoracis Following Penetrating Chest Injury

Best timing for thoracoscopic evacuation of retained post-traumatic hemothorax

“…Some authors have shown that, when the thoracoscopic procedure is performed during the early phase of the disease, a satisfactory drainage and cleaning of the infected pleural cavity may be achieved [8,11,17,19].…”

Thoracoscopic-assisted management of postpneumonic empyema in children refractory to medical response

“…Thanks to recent advances in the video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) technique, patients with pleural and thoracic disorders can now be managed less invasively [7,11,12]. However the role of VATS in treating pediatric empyema has received relatively little attention.…”

Analysis of thoracoscopy in trauma

“…Excluding reference [21], which does not specify how many posttraumatic empyema cases required conversion to a thoracotomy, VATS was successful in 19 (86%) of 22 cases ( Table 5). Several authors have reported a 100% therapeutic success rate: 1/1 [22], 1/1 [24], 8/8 [29], and 6/6 patients [33]. Two procedure-related complications (trapped lung and persistent air leak) occurred in the 30 patients [29].…”

“…Thirty patients from 6 studies [12,21,22,24,29,33] have been treated with the use of VATS, although the actual number may be less than 30 due to overlapping of a few patients between references [12] and [33]. The mean postinjury day of operation varied among the studies: 4 [22], 10.3 [33], and 23.7 days [29]. Excluding reference [21], which does not specify how many posttraumatic empyema cases required conversion to a thoracotomy, VATS was successful in 19 (86%) of 22 cases ( Table 5).…”