Physico-Chemical Pneumonitis

¹ The Charity Hospital of Louisiana and the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Tulane University.

The lung may be damaged by an ever-increasing number of physical and chemical forms of violence. This violence may come from the hazards of industry, from attempts to treat other disease, or from the environmental dangers of current existence. Regardless of the etiology, the syndrome of pneumonitis with its sequellae of suppuration and fibrosis may occur. Once such a syndrome has been produced, it should be treated energetically by removal of the offending agent if possible, by combatting bacterial infection, by stimulating body defenses, and by enhancing the self-cleansing action of the tracheobronchial tree.