[Surgical therapy of pleural empyema with tauroline]

Empyema continues to be a significant problem in spite of improved surgical techniques and the use of new, more potent antimicrobial agents. This report describes our experience in the treatment of empyema at the Clemens Hospital in Münster, Germany, from 1990 to 1996. Basic to conservative treatment are closed drainage with intensive irrigation and instillation of Taurolin, a chemotherapeutic agent against bacterias, yeasts and mycetes. This treatment has been employed since 1990 and given 86 patients with just empyema or in combination with decortication. The superiority of this method to other methods of treatment is discussed on the basis of our results.