The Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Abscess

Abstract

In the two previous papers my colleagues have discussed the radiological appearances, differential diagnosis, morbid anatomy and surgical management of abscess of the lung. It is now my privilege as a physician to make some passing reference to the patient himself. Dr. Blair has very properly sought to classify lung suppuration from a radiological standpoint, but he has emphasised the need for an accurate knowledge of the patient's clinical condition in arriving at a diagnosis. Mr. Holmes Sellors, too, has indicated the importance to the surgeon in differentiating one group of abscess from another. He is inclined, I think, to the view that those cases which can be successfully treated by drainage are cases of “surgical lung abscess”, whereas the remainder which are not so amenable, are cases of “medical lung abscess”. We should all like, of course, to be able to classify these conditions on an aetiological basis, and up to a point we can do so, but in many the causation is unknown. I cannot dismiss from my...