What is it about?
Empyema necessitans occurs in patients with complicated pneumonia, resulting in rupture of the infected pleural fluid through the chest wall. The "split-pleura" sign on computed tomography scanning is a feature of empyema necessitans in which both layers of the pleura, visceral and parietal, become inflamed and separated.
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Why is it important?
The diagnosis of empyema necessitans can implicate a number of more uncommon infectious pathogens and adequate surgical and medical management is imperative to treat this complicated infection.
Perspectives
This article includes descriptive imaging and a discussion of important radiographic findings in empyema necessitans.
Deepa Ramadurai
University of Colorado
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Progressive Dyspnea and Back Pain after Complicated Pneumonia, Annals of the American Thoracic Society, November 2017, American Thoracic Society,
DOI: 10.1513/annalsats.201703-256cc.
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