Background: Empyema (the presence of pus in the pleural space) is a severe complication of community-acquired pneumonia and significant cause of morbidity, but, fortunately, not mortality in children. Between 0.6 and 2% of pneumonias are complicated by empyema and the three main pathogens involved are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and group A Streptococcus 1,2,3,4. Optimal management in children, especially the choice of antibiotics, method of administration and duration of therapy, pleural dranage or surgery, are still a matter of debate and currently, lack of strong specific recommendations. This paper displays the study protocol for a scoping review that aims to summarize the available literature on the microbiological epidemiology, the medical and surgical treatment options, and the outcomes of pleural empyema in pediatric population.

Methods: Comprehensive research combining the terms pediatric (children aged 0 to 18 years) and pleural empyema will be performed on PubMed and SCOPUS to identify all eligible studies. At first, two reviewers will screen the abstract and then their full text to determine the articles that meet the inclusion criteria. This work will be carried out independently, everyone on a different Excel spreadsheet and each researcher will be blinded to the decision of the other researcher. When the process is completed, in case of discordance, any disagreement will be identified and resolved through discussion or with help of a third author.

Dissemination: The findings of this review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Keywords: Parapneumonic empyema; complicated pneumonia; children.

Copyright: © 2024 Buonsenso D et al.

背景：

脓胸（肺膜腔内存在脓液）是社区获得性肺炎的一种严重并发症，也是儿童发病率的重要原因，但幸运的是不是致命的。大约有0.6%到2%的肺炎会并发脓胸，主要涉及的三种病原体分别是肺炎链球菌、金黄色葡萄球菌和A组β-溶血性链球菌。

在儿童中最佳管理方案的选择（包括抗生素选择、给药方式以及治疗时长），肺膜引流或手术的方式仍然存在争议，并且目前缺乏强有力的特定推荐。本文展示了关于脓胸微生物流行病学、医疗与外科治疗方法选项，以及儿科人群脓胸结果的文献综述的研究方案。

方法：

综合研究将在PubMed和SCOPUS上进行，结合“pediatric”（年龄为0到18岁的儿童）和“pleural empyema”的术语，以识别所有符合条件的研究。首先，两位评审员将筛选摘要，并随后审查全文以确定符合纳入标准的文章。这项工作将独立进行，在不同的Excel表格中完成，每位研究人员都将对其他评审员的决定保密。当过程完成后，如果有分歧，任何争议都将通过讨论或寻求第三位作者的帮助来解决。

传播：

本综述的结果将在同行评议期刊上发表。

关键词：伴发脓胸；复杂肺炎；儿童。