Parapneumonic pleural effusion: reality and strategies in an Amazon university hospital.

Objective: to define the profile and analyze the postoperative evolution of children with parapneumonic pleural effusion (PPE), and to evaluate strategies used in the presence of diagnostic and therapeutic limitations, emphasizing the open thoracic drainage (OTD) .

Methods: we conducted a cross-sectional, prospective, analytical study in which we followed children admitted in an Amazon university hospital with surgically addressed PPE, from October 2010 to October 2011.

Results: we studied 46 patients, most children under three years of age (74%), with no gender predominance.