Background: Empyema is the presence of pus in the pleural space that usually follows an episode of pneumonia in pediatric age group. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of management of acute fibrinopurulent stage of empyema by early video assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) in paediatric patients.Methods: The study was carried out at a tertiary care hospital in India. It was a prospective interventional observational study. The study included 40 children between age group 0-12 years attending the surgery in-patient department referred for further management of parapneumonic effusions who had clinical and radiological evidence of empyema and thoracocentesis confirmed purulent exudate in pleural cavity, were subjected to early VATS after thorough pre-operative workup.Results: The mean age was 7.22 years. Average operative time was 135.5 minutes. The mean duration of hospital stay was 7.5 days. Few complications were bleeding, superficial wound infection, bronchopleural fistula, pneumothorax, recurrence of empyema and incomplete expansion of lung.Conclusions: VATS facilitates the management of fibrinopurulent and organised pyogenic pleural empyema with less post-operative discomfort and complications and reduced hospital stay. However larger sample size study is required to come to a definitive conclusion.

Background: It is estimated that more than 200 million people suffer from peripheral vascular disease worldwide. However very few studies are available on upper extremity vascular disease, thus making it an under diagnosed and under treated condition.Methods: In the present study we included 20 participants suffering from upper limb peripheral vascular disease and managed them with multi-modality approach involving general surgeon, interventional radiologist and vascular surgeon for medical line of management, thrombolysis and thrombo-embolectomy procedures.Results: In the present study we observed that early management of these patients with medical management, interventional radiology and embolectomy procedures helped in limb salvage. However alarmingly high number of patients (35%) landed up in amputation because of low index of suspicion and delayed referral.Conclusions: A high level of suspicion and early referral to a tertiary care centre where multi-modality facilities like interventional radiology and vascular surgeon are available should be done.