Video-thoracoscopy and staged management of preoperative empyema in lung cancer

The incidence of pleural empyema as a primary finding in lung cancer patients is low (0.1 to 0.3 %) and the management of those patients deemed operable consists of either infection control pri- or to resection, or thoracotomy and resection before infection control. We successfully resolved (in one patient) and alleviated (in a second patient) empyema-related systemic infection by video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), and were thus able to resect their lung tumours 14 and 21 days later, respectively.