INFARCTION AND ABSCESSES OF THE LUNG The hternorrhagic pulmonary infarction presents nothing spee,ial in the child in contrast to that of the adult.
Only the occurrence of an umbilical phlebitis from a thrombosis of the ductus I3otalli, marantic thrombosis as the result of cholera in fantum, may be advanced as causes. The diagnosis is rendered very difficult by the absence of sputum.
Abscess of the lung is a rare condition. It may develop in connection with protracted cases of pneumonia (comparatively frequent after influenza), foreign bodies in the lung, infectious emboli, caseous bronchial glands, or may originate from the pleura. Staphylo- or pneurnococci are mostly the cause. The symptoms ttre usually not distinctive, and the characteristic sputum (purulent, insipid odor, elastic fibres) is often absent even after rupture through a bronchus, so that the diagnosis is rarely made during Efe. The abscess, which frequently causes death, is attended by symptoms of increasing cachexia, with irregular remittent fever, the eattse of which is only discovered on post-tnortem examination.
In the case of an infant observed by nte it caused an obstinate enteritis. Whenever the abscess is extensive and the dulness circumscribed, the following conditions must be differentiated: tuberculosis, bronchiectatic cavities, gangrene of the lungs, bronchopneumonia, and particularly also encapsulated, interlobular empyema, from which it is scarcely to be distinguished. Recovery by rupture through a bronchus is not rare. Exploratory puncture is useful for the establishment of a certain diagnosis.
Recently, absc.ess of the lungs has been successfully treated by operative measures (resection of the ribs), In most cases the pleura was found adherent. Abscesses produced by foreign bodies are mostly putrid, cause purulent pleurisy, and are not, suitable for operation (Sctitnenburg).