HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Mavroudis, C. Articles by Polk, H. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Mavroudis, C. Articles by Polk, H. C., Jr

The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 46, 615-618, Copyright © 1988 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

ARTICLES

Successful treatment of empyema thoracis with polymethylmethacrylate antibiotic-impregnated beads in the guinea pig

C Mavroudis, SL Katzmark, BL Ganzel, LA Gray Jr and HC Polk Jr
Department of Surgery, University of Louisville School of Medicine, KY 40292.

Two hundred nine Duncan-Harley guinea pigs had intrathoracic inoculation with 10(8) Staphylococcus aureus, accompanied by blood and umbilical tape. One hundred fifty-two animals were excluded because of clinical recovery, early death, or complications related to intrathoracic polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) bead placement. The remaining 57 animals had clinical signs of empyema thoracis and were the subjects of this study. Group I animals (N = 24) served as the controls and had no therapy. Group II animals (N = 14) were treated by intrathoracic placement of placebo PMMA beads. Group III animals (N = 19) were treated by intrathoracic placement of tobramycin sulfate- impregnated PMMA beads. There were no differences between the groups in pleural reaction or pneumonia scores. These findings demonstrate a similar host response to the established infection. Group III, however, had a higher sterilization rate than Groups I and II (p less than 0.05), a finding underlining the therapeutic effect of tobramycin- treated PMMA beads. We conclude that intrathoracic local antimicrobial therapy with slow-release tobramycin-impregnated PMMA beads may enhance empyema treatment by increasing the rate of local sterilization. More experiments are necessary to assess the efficacy of this potentially important therapeutic arm for the treatment of thoracic empyema.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. Alexiou, A. Goyal, R. K. Firmin, and M. St. J. Hickey Is open thoracotomy still a good treatment option for the management of empyema in children? Ann. Thorac. Surg., December 1, 2003; 76(6): 1854 - 1858. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]