Immediate drainage is not required for all patients with complicated parapneumonic effusions.

We retrospectively investigated if the clinical course of complicated parapneumonic effusions was altered by treatment with immediate drainage plus antibiotics vs antibiotics alone. The two groups of patients had no significant differences in age, duration of symptoms prior to hospitalization, initial maximum temperature, WBC count, or characteristics of the pleural fluid. There were no differences in the duration of hospitalization, fever, elevated WBC count, intravenous antibiotic therapy, or the time for roentgenographic resolution of the effusions. There was one death in each group. The infection of the pleural space resolved in 13 of 16 patients treated with antibiotics alone. No recurrence of the infection of the pleural space occurred in these patients. Antibiotics alone were not sufficient in two cases which eventually required chest tube drainage. Therefore, not all complicated parapneumonic effusions require drainage. A prospective study is required to determine if chest tube drainage should be part of the initial management of complicated parapneumonic effusions.