Aerosol Antibiotic Therapy in Suppurative Diseases of the Lung and Bronchi

¹ The First Division, Medical Service, B. S. Pollak Hospital for Chest Diseases, Medical Center, Jersey City, New Jersey.

1) The results in 46 cases of bronchopulmonary suppuration treated by aerosolized antibiotics are reported.

2) Methods of nebulization are briefly reviewed.

3) It is stressed that the local concentration and the topical effectiveness of the antibiotics judged by the clinical and anatomical course of the disease are more important criteria than the blood level.

4) Penicillin and/or streptomycin aerosol therapy usually brings about appreciable clinical and anatomical improvement and therapy minimizes the operative risk in patients able to meet requirements for excisional surgery.

5) In non-operative cases of bronchiectasis attained improvement may be maintained for months or longer although recurrences are frequent. Favorable responses to aerosolization may be repeatedly obtained.

6) With the use of antibiotics surgical drainage is no longer an emergency in lung abscess. Because bronchiectasis not infrequently complicates lung abscess, extirpation of the involved lung segment is favored.

7) Whether the number of lung abscesses which heal spontaneously has increased cannot be stated unequivocally at this moment.

8) Antibiotics by nebulization are more convenient for the patient and their effectiveness equal, and in some instances more definite, than parenteral administration.