Guidelines for the treatment of empyema (The Japanese Association for Chest Surgery)

This article translates the guidelines for the treatment of empyema established by the Japanese Association of Chest Surgery in 2023 from Japanese to English. These guidelines were developed by the Working Group on Guidelines for the Treatment of Empyema of our society, involving the establishment of clinical questions, conducting systematic reviews in accordance with the MINDS (Medical Information Distribution Service) Manual for Guideline Development 2020 version 3.0 and the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) system, and determining the levels of recommendations. Furthermore, external evaluators provided assessments. Subsequently, the guidelines were finalized after receiving public comments from the members of the society. Even in the current era of advanced antibiotic therapy, empyema remains difficult to treat. However, the specific guideline for the treatment of empyema lacks in our country. Each institution is conducting clinical practices in its own way. Therefore, aiming to standardize the treatment of empyema, we have developed a practice guideline of empyema treatment. The pathophysiology of empyema is diverse, so empyema is classified into acute, chronic, and postoperative empyema. The recommended surgical treatment for each type of empyema is described, being categorized by the strength of recommendation, strength of evidence, and consensus rate.