THE ADVANTAGES OF THE SO-CALLED DECORTICATION OF THE LUNG IN OLD EMPYEMA

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Abstract
In operating for an old empyema we are presented with the problem of closing an old, suppurating cavity with stiff, unyielding walls, the inner wall consisting of the lung with its thick covering of fibrous tissue and fibrin, the other wall being the wall of the chest cavity. It is obvious that to enable such an abscess cavity to close, either the bony framework must be removed from the chest wall, so that it may sink in against the lung, or the thick fibrous covering must be removed from the lung and the lung expanded so as to come in contract with the chest-wall, or a combination of these two methods must affected. The old mutilating process, with which the names of Estländer and Schede are connected, consists of extensive multiple resection of the ribs, with or without the removal of the intercostal muscles, allows the skin of the chest

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