[Current role of open window thoracostomy]

The Open Window Thoracostomy (OWT) surgical method find its origin in the treatment of chronic tuberculous empyemas, in the cases where the drainage alone not permitted a sufficient cleaning of pleural cavity. In the recent years the indications for the execution of this method are extended also to metapneumoniae and post-pneumonectomy empyemas (for benign and malignant pathology), with or without bronco-pleural fistula, when these pathologies produces a general severe decline in the patient (septic shock). This method permit to effect a daily cleaning of a pleural cavity, through the introduction of a sterile gauzes imbued of specific antibiotic, reducing at least the purulent infection effects's previously present and favouring the reduction of the same cavity, in prevision of other reconstructive operations (thoracoplasty). Generally not many beloved by surgeons and patients (for the difficult management, aesthetic outcomes, the long stay in hospital), the OWT can often reestablish a dangerous situation, especially in the patients with a risk of septic shock. This study aims to analyse present indications, problems and therapeutics outcomes of this method, through the evaluation of 27 cases of OWT treated in the Department of Thoracic Surgery University of L'Aquila between the 1984 and the 1998.