Abstract
A review of the literature raises considerable doubt as to the advisability of surgical drainage of lung abscess as a definitive procedure. The mortality rate with use of this procedure and other hazards associated with it, must now be viewed in the light of improved methods of conservative therapy — involving the use of penicillin, bronchoscopic treatment and postural drainage—by which cure can be obtained in more than 80 per cent of cases of acute abscess and in a smaller proportion of cases of chronic abscess. Another factor to be considered is the better chance for diagnosis and effective resection of associated carcinoma when conservative treatment is employed.
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Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
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