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Assessment of factors associated with drainage duration and hospital stay of nontuberculous empyema in a tertiary care hospital of West Bengal: A prospective study

Context: Empyema thoracis is a common cause of morbidity and mortality. A number of factors could affect the treatment outcome of empyema cases. Aims: To assess the clinical and microbiological characteristics of non-tuberculous empyema and the factors associated with duration of chest drainage and hospital stay. Settings and Design: The Department of Pulmonary Medicine of a teaching institution in eastern India. A prospective observational study. Material and Methods: The study was conducted among the admitted non tuberculous empyema cases over the period of 18 months. The demographic profile, clinical features, duration of chest drainage and hospital stay of 80 cases who were admitted during the data collection period was recorded. Statistical analysis used: Data were analysed using unpaired t test, Bivariate Correlation, Chi square test and Fisher's exact test with the help of SPSS 22.0 software. Results: Majority of cases were male and from rural area. Mean duration of intercostal chest tube drainage and hospital stay were 16 ± SD 5.2 and 17.7 ± SD 5.1 days respectively which were significantly increased with prolongation of interval between symptom onset and chest drain insertion (P = 0.000 and P= 0.000) and in presence of comorbidity (P = 0.022 and P= 0.026), pleural fluid loculations (P = 0.015 and P= 0.029), positive culture growth (P= 0.012 and P= 0.021) and presence of gram negative organism (P =0.005 and P = 0.008) in pleural fluid. Conclusions: Chest drain duration and hospital stay could be used as surrogate indicators for treatment outcome measures.