[Empyema: bacterial epidemiology and antibiotic resistance]

It is essential to know the epidemiology and resistance to antibiotics of the main pathogens responsible for children empyema because the bacteriological diagnosis is reached in less than half the cases. This diagnosis can be improved when using sophisticated methods of investigation, such as antigens detection, PCR... The main species involved is Streptococcus pneumoniae, then followed by Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus. The pneumococcal serotypes most often involved in France are 1, 19A, 14 and 3. If some of them remain susceptible to penicillin (1,3), others may be resistant (19A, 14) and the majority are not included in the 7 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.