Abstract
Introduction: Post-traumatic pleural empyema tends to increase in recent years, related to the severity of chest trauma and postoperative care. There are very few studies on this type of disease. The study aims to describe some etiological, clinical, and paraclinical characteristics and evaluate early results of endoscopic thoracic surgery to treat this disease.
Patients and Methods: A retrospective descriptive study of cases with a confirmed diagnosis of post-traumatic empyema and treated by thoracoscopic surgery, at the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Center, Viet Duc university hospital, from January 2017 to April 2021.
Results: Including 52 patients, with 46 men – 6 women, the average age was 44.87 years old; the average time from accident to surgery was 31.17 days, the average surgery time was 86.83 minutes; thoracoscopic surgery was 100% successful. Intensive respiratory physiotherapy was performed in 100% of patients; the average postoperative hospital stay was 8.13 days; the most common postoperative complication was wound infection (3.8%); 100% of patients discharged from the hospital were stable, with no mortality.
Conclusion: Endoscopic thoracic surgery combined with intensive respiratory physiotherapy after surgery is an effective solution in treating post-traumatic pleural empyema.
Keywords: Post-traumatic empyema, chest trauma, endoscopic thoracic.
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