Collapse Therapy of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Negroes

¹ Waverley Hills, Kentucky

Two hundred and twenty-six colored patients treated with some form of collapse therapy out of more than 700 admissions, during a period beginning in October, 1928, and ending in July, 1938, are reviewed and studied.

The response to treatment marks an improvement over earlier studies made in our institution, showing at this time 53.2 per cent for the improved, quiescent and apparently arrested cases. This improvement has been attributed to (1) a larger series which includes all forms of collapse therapy, (2) enlargement of the scope of our field work, (3) increase in the number of beds in our sanatorium, (4) well planned and well executed programs of the Louisville Tuberculosis Association and the Public and County School Health Units, which have aided in the discovery of earlier cases and in the development of a health consciousness in our community.

Cases, as early as moderately advanced, started on collapse therapy, show a percentage of seventy-nine for the favorable side.

The influence of cavity closure on end-results is clearly shown in the pneumothorax cases where 91.5 per cent with unsatisfactory collapse are unimproved or dead.