Culture-Positive and Culture-Negative Empyema After Thoracoscopic Decortication: A Comparison of Short-term and Long-term Outcomes

BACKGROUND: Empyema thoracis is a serious infectious disease and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. The perioperative outcomes between culture-positive and culture-negative empyema after thoracoscopic decortication remained controversial, especially since there were no studies that reported the survival outcomes between culture-positive and culture-negative empyema. METHODS: This single-institute study involved a retrospective analysis. Patients with empyema thoracis who underwent thoracoscopic decortication between January 2012 and December 2021 were included in the study. Patients were grouped into a culture-positive group and a culture-negative group according to culture results obtained no later than 2 weeks after surgery. RESULTS: A total of 1087 patients with empyema received surgery, and 824 were enrolled after exclusion. Among these, 366 patients showed positive culture results and 458 patients showed negative results. Longer intensive care unit stays (11.69 vs 5.64 days, P < .001), longer ventilator usage (24.70 vs 14.01 days, P = .002), and longer postoperative hospital stays (40.83 vs 28.37 days, P < .001) were observed in the culture-positive group. However, there was no significant difference in 30-day mortality between the 2 groups (5.2% in culture negative vs 5.0% in culture positive, P = .913). The 2-year survival was not significantly different between the 2 groups (P = .236). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with culture-positive or culture-negative empyema who underwent thoracoscopic decortication showed similar short-term and long-term survival outcomes. A higher risk of death was associated with advanced age, a higher Charlson Comorbidity Index score, phase III empyema, and a cause other than pneumonia.