Historical Background
- Around 500 BC, Hippocrates recommended treating empyema with open drainage.
- The treatment of empyema remained unchanged until the middle of the 19th century.
- In 1876, Hewitt described a method of closed drainage of the chest in which a rubber tube which was placed into the empyema
cavity and drained through a water seal drainage.
- TIn the early 20th century, surgical therapies for empyema (e.g. decortication) were introduced.
