The Surgical Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract

Pulmonary tuberculosis as seen in childhood and adolescence presents many interesting prob- lems to the physician and to the pathologist. An extensive literature has grown around the subject expressing conflicting views upon the pathogenesis, natural history, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease. The discussion has been confused by differences in terminology and by the different sources of the authors' material. Treatment of the disease has aroused no less controversy than its other aspects, but, in contrast to the numerous reports on the efficacy or otherwise of medical measures, surgical treatment has received little attention in the literature. Collapse therapy in the form of artificial pneumothorax or pneumo- peritoneum has long been employed in children, but I have been able to trace only 11 papers describing series of planned major surgical inter- ventions for pulmonary tuberculosis in children and adolescents, namely, those of Levitin and