Trial reportArchives of disease in childhood2003
Management of thoracic empyema in childhood: does the pleural thickening matter?
Trial report in Archives of disease in childhood, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Microbial Etiology of Empyema Thoracis in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Indian pediatrics · 2026Pooled it
- The management of community-acquired pneumonia in infants and children older than 3 months of age: clinical practice guidelines by the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2011Guideline
- Guideline
- Long-Term Outcomes of Necrotizing Pneumonia and Parapneumonic Effusion in Children.Pediatric pulmonology · 2025Article
- Pulmonary function in children post-empyema: spirometryERJ open research · 2025Article
- Review
- The role of the early video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery in children with pleural empyema.Pediatric surgery international · 2024Observational
- Empyema necessitans complicating pleural effusion associated with proteus species infection: a diagnostic dilemma.Case reports in pediatrics · 2015Article
- Acute scoliosis in a 3-year-old boy.BMJ case reports · 2012Article
- Paediatric complicated pneumonia: Diagnosis and management of empyema.Paediatrics & child health · 2011Article
- Empyema thoracis: Surgical management in children.Journal of Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons · 2009Article
- Clinical practice: treatment of childhood empyema.European journal of pediatrics · 2009Review
- Successful thoracoscopic treatment of severe bilateral empyema in an infant.General thoracic and cardiovascular surgery · 2007Article
- Empyema thoracis: not time to put down the knife.Archives of disease in childhood · 2003Article
- Prognostic Factors in the Management of Empyema Thoracis in Northern Nigeria.Journal of the West African College of SurgeonsArticle
- Empyema Thoracis in Children: A 5-Year Experience in a Tertiary Care Institute.Journal of Indian Association of Pediatric SurgeonsArticle
- Surgical management of stage III pediatric empyema thoracis.Lung India : official organ of Indian Chest SocietyArticle
- VATS: first step in the parapneumonic empyema*.Il Giornale di chirurgiaArticle
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsTo determine the clinical course and long term outcome of empyema treated without decortication.
methodsFourteen consecutive admissions to one hospital were studied; radiological resolution and lung function were subsequently followed. The children were aged 2-14 years. All were treated with intravenous antibiotics and chest drain only.
resultsAll patients had extensive pleural thickening evident on chest x ray examination at the time of discharge, which resolved entirely over a period of 2-16 months. Lung function was measured in 13 children, and showed no evidence of restrictive or obstructive deficit: mean (SD) values as per cent predicted for height were: forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 107.5 (9.6), forced vital capacity (FVC) 95.5 (8.8), total lung capacity (TLC) 98.6 (20.7). Individual children all had values in the normal range (80-120 per cent predicted).
conclusionResults suggest that decortication is not necessary in children to prevent long term problems with pleural thickening, and should be undertaken on the basis of the clinical picture (failure of fever resolution), rather than radiological appearance.
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