GRAM-NEGATIVE BACILLUS EMPYEMA CURED BY INTRAPLEURAL PENICILLIN

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Abstract
Well established empyema thoracis has generally been considered a definite indication for operative drainage, usually through rib resection. Less drastic measures have been ineffective except in occasional cases. Sulfonamide therapy has diminished the severity of cases in which operations have been done and has resulted in some cures without operations when treatment is started early and before the exudate has become thick and purulent. The use of penicillin, however, has altered the picture considerably. The results of penicillin treatment in 261 collected cases of empyema, exclusive of those which followed thoracic operations or trauma, have recently been analyzed.1 Between 50 and 65 per cent of the empyemas which were due to the pneumococcus, the beta hemolytic streptococcus and Staphylococcus aureus were completely cured without surgical drainage by aspirations and the use of penicillin parenterally, intrapleurally or by both routes. The same treatment was less frenquently successful in putrid empyemas

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