[Pleural empyema--treatment results of the myoplasty method]

The authors present the results of surgical treatment of pleural empyema by transposition of skeletal muscles into the pleural cavity. 50 patients with chronic pleural empyema of different origin were treated in Thoracic Surgery Department in Lublin in the years 1995-1998. Patients were after thoracotomy with lung tissue resection, in its majority due to neoplastic diseases. The healing process was completed per primam intentionem in 1/3 of the patients who were operated on. After 3 months the number of cured patients increased to 72.0%, and after 1 year to 84%. The hospital death rate after surgery was 6%. Because of partial obliteration of pleural cavity 25 patients were secondary treated with extended drainage or modified Clagett's method. The best results occurred when complete obliteration of pleural cavity was acquired primarily. In large empyemas it was necessary to perform supplementary thoracoplasty or filling the residual cavity with proper antibiotics solution.