Tag: Chest

This is not a common operation. I have done a few, basically where I thought an attempt to do a pneumonectomy was fraught with a huge risk. The other lung appeared good on Xray, but on the affected side there was a bronchopleural fistula, a pyothorax, and a destroyed lung. Whenever the patient lay on their healthy side they coughed up copious pus as it ran from the pyothorax through the fistula into the trachea, sometimes in sizeable volumes and was coughed up. TB was very common; this film doesn’t show a case suitable for this surgery.