Clinical Presentation and Diagnosis of Tuberculosis
Next
Previous
First
Last
If the lung has completely collapsed, the approach with simple draining can be successful. It is not known, however, in advance how long the empyema must be drained in an individual patient. Therefore the drain should securely sewed to the skin. The drain should be introduced with a trocar which, after piercing the skin and subcutaneous tissues, should be moved over two or three ribs before penetrating between two ribs into the pleural cavity.
The drain should be left in place until the daily excretion does not exceed 5 to 10mL else it is likley that pus will accumulate again.
