Rivier1 states, "No more hopeful ray of sunshine has ever come to illumine the dark kingdom of disease than that introduced into the path of the consumptive through the discovery of artificial pneumothorax."
When we consider the hopeless outlook of thousands of tuberculous patients, the results of pneumothorax treatment are almost miraculous. Fortunately, the poor results formerly obtained are due to preventable causes and errors in judgment, and with increased experience even greater benefits will follow.
Originally, collapse therapy was confined to the treatment of advanced pulmonary tuberculosis when all other means had failed, but gradually it was recognized that it could be used in more favorable cases, and today all recognized phthisiologists obtain results that were formerly undreamed of. Benefits obtained are in direct proportion to the care exercised in choosing suitable cases and the judgment of the operator in his method of procedure.
It is not the