• Semin Respir Crit Care Med · Dec 2010

    Review

    The approach to the patient with a parapneumonic effusion.

    • John M Wrightson and Robert J O Davies.
    • Oxford Pleural Unit, Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom. johnwrightson@thorax.org.uk
    • Semin Respir Crit Care Med. 2010 Dec 1;31(6):706-15.

    AbstractParapneumonic effusions are seen in up to 57% of patients with pneumonia. The majority of these effusions are noninfected and resolve with standard antibiotic treatment for the associated pneumonia. However, parapneumonic effusions in a minority of cases become infected and require prompt chest tube drainage and occasionally thoracic surgery. Patients may present in a variety of ways from florid sepsis to weight loss and anorexia; such diversity mandates a high index of suspicion among physicians. The role of the combination of intrapleural deoxyribonuclease (DNase) and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) to aid fluid drainage shows promise but needs further assessment in large trials with surgery and mortality as primary end points.© Thieme Medical Publishers.

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