[Pleural empyema in elderly patients].

We shall consider carefully for surgical management of pleural empyema in elderly patients over 80 years old for the reason that their preoperative conditions are frequently poor, due to such as several complications, low activity of dayly life and immunodeficiency on account of undernutrition. Sufficiently drainage and cleaning the abscess cavity by irrigation of saline with antibiotics through chest tube are required in acute period of empyema. In chronic period of empyema, prolonged hospitalization because of unsucusessful drainage, surgical management is necessary. Various surgical procedures reported by many authors were reviewd and suitable method should be selected respectively, taking individual states of elderly patients into consideration.