TY - JOUR AU - Aslam, Tahir AU - Bilal, Amer AU - Ahmed, Manzoor AU - Abid, Mohammad AU - Baseer, Abdul AU - Baloch, Khurshid Ahmed AU - Ali, Fawad PY - 2020/12/16 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - OUTCOMES OF OPEN THORACIC SURGICAL DECORTICATION IN PATIENTS WITH TUBERCULOUS EMPYEMA JF - Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal JA - PAFMJ VL - 70 IS - 6 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.51253/pafmj.v70i6.3724 UR - https://pafmj.org/PAFMJ/article/view/3724 SP - 1799-1803 AB - <p><strong>Objective:</strong> To analyze the outcome of open surgical decortication of tuberculous empyema patients at their late presentation.</p><p><strong>Study Design:</strong> Cross sectional study.</p><p><strong>Place and Duration of Study: </strong>Patients (n = 128)&nbsp;with tuberculous empyema were subjected to decortication for one and half year starting from July 2017 to December 2018. Pre, intra, and post-operative characteristics of all patients were studied thoroughly with a 6-month follow up evaluation of the surgical outcomes.</p><p>&nbsp;<strong>Results</strong>: Preoperative conditions were as follows:&nbsp; 6.25% patient had Broncho pleural fistula, 90.9% patients were diagnosed with cough, 34.7 with night sweating, 64.2% chest pain and 79.6% chest tightness. Decortication was performed in all cases, with debridement of necrotic tissue and repair of air leaks in some patients. 70 (54.7%) patients went through right side decortication, whereas 56 (43.7%) patients went through left sided decortication and 2 (1.56%) patients had bilateral. Mortality was 2 (1.56%), 1 patient died of septicemia while 1 of pulmonary embolism. Whereas morbidity was 9 (7%), 3 patients had wound infection, 4 had incomplete lung expansion, 1 patient each had prolonged air leak and post-operative bleeding.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Delayed referral for surgery causes irreversible changes in the lung, and prolonged disease condition, which causes increased thickness of the pleura and injury to the underlying lung with a delayed recovery. Open decortication gives satisfactory results.</p> ER -