Widespread pleural empyema with gangrenous destruction of pulmonary tissue as a late complication of COVID-associated pneumonia

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been characterized by a large number of complications involving all human organs and systems. For the surgical community, purulent and destructive pulmonary and pleural diseases occurring against the background of initially occurring or newly diagnosed coronavirus infection (NCI) are of the greatest clinical and scientific interest. Despite the considerable amount of accumulated information about the causative agent, peculiarities of pathogenesis, clinical course and treatment of NKI, the consensus about the peculiarities of management of patients with purulent complications of lungs and pleura has not been reached so far. Treatment decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. Although SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is officially over, elimination of the pathogen from the human population is impossible, which indicates the need for further collection and analysis of information on all cases of purulent-destructive diseases of lungs and pleura against the background of NKI in order to identify the features of their course and improve treatment and diagnostic measures in this group of patients.