TY - JOUR T1 - BTS guidelines for the management of pleural infection in children JF - Thorax JO - Thorax SP - i1 LP - i21 DO - 10.1136/thx.2004.030676 VL - 60 IS - suppl 1 AU - I M Balfour-Lynn AU - E Abrahamson AU - G Cohen AU - J Hartley AU - S King AU - D Parikh AU - D Spencer AU - A H Thomson AU - D Urquhart Y1 - 2005/02/01 UR - http://thorax.bmj.com/content/60/suppl_1/i1.abstract N2 - “It seems probable that this study covers the period of practical extinction of empyema as an important disease.” Lionakis B et al, J Pediatr 1958. 1.1 Structure of the guideline The format follows that used for the BTS guidelines on the management of pleural disease in adults.1 At the start there is a summary table of the abstracted bullet points from each section. Following that is an algorithm summarising the management of pleural infection in children (fig 1). Each section starts with bulleted points of key recommendations using the revised SIGN grading system (table 1) available on http://www.sign.ac.uk/guidelines/fulltext/50/section6.html. Beneath each set of bullet points is a short paragraph detailing the referenced literature and the rationale behind the recommendations. The primary source literature has been individually graded for its methodology and the grading is given alongside each reference using the revised SIGN levels of evidence (table 2).View this table:In this windowIn a new window Table 1  Revised SIGN grading system: grades of recommendation View this table:In this windowIn a new window Table 2  Revised SIGN grading system: levels of evidence Figure 1  Algorithm for the management of pleural infection in children. 1.2 Methodology for generation of the guidelines The initial literature search was carried out by the Library of the National Heart Lung Institute, Imperial College London. Further searches were then carried out by members of the working group who concentrated on their own topics. Details of the search strategy are given in Appendix 1. Each section of the guideline was researched and drafted by a subgroup of the Paediatric Pleural Diseases Subcommittee (itself a subcommittee of the BTS Standards of Care Committee). Publications were rated according to the SIGN criteria for the calibre of the methodology of the research to give levels of evidence (table 2). Tables of evidence were then produced before writing the guideline sections using the SIGN grades of recommendations (table 1). Once all parts were merged into one document, the whole group then met to discuss … ER -