Lung Abscesses; a Five-Year Evaluation

¹ Miami, Florida

The case records of 55 patients with lung abscesses at a large county-university hospital in the past five years were reviewed. The age, sex, predisposing factors, symptoms, bacteriology and location did not appear significantly different from other series. The diagnosis was made earlier in this series than in those reported reported previously; 71 per cent of patients had symptoms of less than one month's duration.

Factors that appeared to indicate a poor prognosis were multiple abscesses, lower lobe abscesses or presence of one of the socalled pathogenic bacteria on initial culture. Therapy should be prolonged and intensive and continued until the abscess has closed. The patient should be given an adequate trial to close the cavity on medical management. However, if symptoms progress, if the abscess enlarges or if no response is made after six weeks to two months, surgical intervention should be more strongly considered. Late surgical resection may be necessary in the patient who has closed his abscess but has recurrent infections or residual bronchiectasis.