Does VATS provide optimal treatment of empyema in children?
Gates RL; Caniano DA; Hayes JR; Arca MJ Division of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University, College of Medicine and Public Health and Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA. PURPOSE: The surgical literature is replete with studies describing methods of treatment for pediatric empyema. The purpose of this report was to perform an evidence-based review of the literature to determine the most effective and appropriate treatment for empyema in infants and children. METHODS: The MEDLINE database was searched for English- and Spanish-language articles published from 1987 through 2002 on the treatment of thoracic empyema in children. Additional unpublished data were obtained by contacting individual study authors. There were no multiinstitutional prospective studies; all were retrospective, institutional series. A true meta-analysis could not be performed because of inherent institutional bias and variability in outcome measures among studies. A Kruskal-Wallis non
