[Decortication of the lung in the treatment of nonspecific pleural empyema].

In the period 1986-1990 at the Clinic of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery 86 patients with nonspecific pleural empyema were treated. There were 18 men and one woman, mean age of 35.6 years. Causes of empyema have been the following: pleuropneumonia (10 patients), chest trauma (2), iatrogenic pleural infection (2), spontaneous pneumothorax (2), mediastinitis (1) and pleural infection per continuitatem (2). The authors consider that decortication should be performed as early as possible, immediately after stabilization of acute signs of infection. The optimal time for surgery is from to six hours since the onset of the disease.