Context: Empyema thoracic carries significantly morbidity and mortality in paediatric patient, if not properly treated. Aims: This study is focussed on treatment according to chronicity of the disease and its outcome. Methods and Material: In this prospective study, 22 patients with empyema under age group of 12 were treated according to American Thoracic Society (ATS) staging. 9 patient with ATS stage I were treated by antibiotics. 5 patient with ATS stage II underwent Video assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) while 8 patient with ATS stage III were treated by thoracotomy. Results: Average hospital stay of patients with ATS stage I, II and III were 7 days, 16 days and 18 days respectively. The complications rate were lowest among patients with ATS stage I followed by ATS stage II and III. There were no mortality. Conclusions: These study suggests treating empyema at early stage has significant favourable outcome in terms of morbidity. So all efforts should be made to detect and treat the disease in earlier stage.

Keywords: Empyema; Decortication; paediatric; American Thoracis Society (ATS).