Duration of hospitalization for acute bacterial empyema at Boston City Hospital during 12 selected years from 1935 to 1972

The duration of hospitalization for acute bacterial empyema of the pleura was determined for all cases at Boston City Hospital during 12 selected years between 1935 and 1972. Patients whose infection was acquired after admission stayed in the hospital longer than those in whom the empyema, or the infection of which the empyema was a complication, was present at the time of admission. The differences were mostly related to serious underlying disease in the hospital-acquired cases. However, the duration of hospitalization after the empyema was bacteriologically confirmed was not much different in the community-acquired and hospital-acquired cases. Hospital stay was further prolonged in patients whose empyema was superinfected with new bacterial species after the original infecting organisms were determined. Hospitalization was shorter in the 10 selected years between 1974 and 1972, when penicillin and other active antibiotics were used, than in two years before penicillin became available, 1935 and 1941.