[Surgical procedure in the treatment of post-traumatic pleural empyema]

Questions of pathogenesis and tactics of treatment of 62 patients with empyema of the pleura after a closed trauma and penetrating wounds of the chest are discussed. The development of empyema was dependent on the character and degree of the injury as well as on surgical errors in diagnosis and treatment of the trauma. Coagulated hemothorax was the most frequent cause of empyema. Operation was the main method of treatment, the operation of choice being pleurectomy and decortication of the lung.