Surgical Treatment of Peripheral Lung Abscess *

In a recent paper, Oughterson and Harvey" reported experiments on dogs in which they produced local compression of a part of a lung by the use of a distensible rubber bag. They stripped the periosteum from several ribs, displaced the pleura, periosteum and intercostal structures inwards and introduced a rubber bag into the space thus created beneath the ribs. The bag, filled with a liquid, held the soft parts in position until bone formation by the periosteum had begun. The denuded ribs and the bag were then removed, leaving a permanent concavity in the chest wall after the skin had been sutured into place. The above method has been applied in the treatment of a patient with a single peripheral lung abscess, the history of which is here presented. The results obtained illustrate the feasibility of producing collapse of this type of cavity by the method of local compression which hitherto has been used only in the obliteration of tuberculous cavities situated in the apex of the lung.