Empyema is a severe infection encountered in the pediatrics. With advance of the antibiotics and chemotherapeutics, there was a marked decrease in number of empyema. Empyema complicated by staphylococcal pneumonia in infant and children has been distressing problem, and the management of this complication has been discussed repeatedly in the past. In Korea, tuberculous empyema is also troublesome. If empyema is localized within thick capsule, tube thoracostomy and closed drainage alone is unacceptable, and early open thoracotomy to eliminate the empyema has proved good result. A clinical analysis of 39 patients with thoracic empyema was done. They were managed surgical intervention at Dept. of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery at Kyung-Hee University Hospital from Jan. 1974 to December, 1984. 1. Age and sex distribution, infancy 9, early childhood 11. late childhood 9, puberty 10. The male to female ratio was 21:18. 2. The highest seasonal incidence was winter [21 cases]. 3. Cardinal symptoms were cough [76%], fever and chill [66%], and dyspnea [40%]. 4. The location of the empyema was right in 27 cases [69%] and 12 cases in left side. 5. The most frequent lesion to predisposing factor was pneumonia [67%]. 6. The commonest organism was Staphylococcus aureus in 15 [38%] cases, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 10 cases [26%]. 7. The surgical treatment was performed in all patients. The surgical procedure was closed tube thoracostomy in 25 cases [64%], decortication in 7 cases [18%], pulmonary resection in 4 cases [10%], and decortication with curettage in 2 cases. 8. One patient died from sepsis complicated by lymphoma and in one patient bronchopleural fistula was developed postoperatively.