ORGINAL PAPER
Pulmonary abscesses – aetiology and treatment. Ten-year experience of the Department of General and Thoracic Surgery in Lodz, Poland

Introduction: Primary lung abscess is a disease developing due to aspiration or embolization of the infected material from the lung tissue or on the basis of other diseases of different aetiology (secondary abscess). In the research, the authors referred to the aetiology and pathomorphology of lung abscesses and described modern methods of diagnosis and treatment. Material and methods: We treated 89 patients with lung abscess for over 10 years. The main aetiological causes were pneumonia (30%), choking (16,8%), aspiration of the foreign object (10%), injuries (8%) and unknown (21%). We evaluated bacterial flora from the abscess in 61 cases (68.5%). In surgical treatment, we applied resection of the lung tissue – 67 (anatomical – 32, unanatomical – 35), transcutaneous drainage – 9, pleural drainage – 11, cavernostomy – 2. Results: Positive results such as expansion of the lung, regression of the septic state and the possibility to discharge the patient home was obtained in 72 patients (80.9%). 26 patients developed severe complications, seven of which (7.9%) died in an early postoperative period (30 days from the surgical intervention). Conclusions: Surgical treatment of lung abscesses requires an individual approach to each patient regarding his general condition, aetiology, dimensions and the location of the lung abscess, presence of coexisting diseases and possible postoperative course of the disease. Patients with lung abscesses directed to surgical treatment are a specific group because of their poor general condition and lack of possibilities of conservative treatment, which influence the unsatisfactory outcome of treatment.