Artificial pneumothorax in the treatment of lung tuberculosis.
Artificial pneumothorax (APT) was the first positive treatment of tuberculosis to cause improvement. As a basic of therapy after 1910 it was replaced by chemotherapy 30 years later. Its development followed an early 19th century observation that spontaneous pneumothorax improved a tuberculosis patient. In 1822 James Carson originated the concept and principles of inducing a collapse after discovering the elasticity of the lungs in animal experiments. He also defined the limits of animal tolerance in induction by open chest incision, but failed in his only clinical attempt at an APT. Fornalini in 1984 independently revived the concept of APT using the closed method of needle induction, as later accepted. The principles of APT promoted thoracic surgery with the concept of permanent collapse in thoracoplasty; the experience of the management of postoperative shock in turn benefited the development of lung resection.
Dubovsky
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D005060:Europe; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011031:Pneumothorax, Artificial / Q000266:history*; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000266:history* / Q000601:surgery