Lung abscess

For a lay person:

A lung abscess is a pus-filled cavity in the lung caused by infection, often after inhaling material from the mouth or stomach. It causes fever, cough with foul-smelling or bloody mucus, chest pain, sweats and weight loss. It is a serious infection that needs medical treatment, usually a long course of antibiotics.

For a trained medical person:

A necrotising infection forming a cavity in lung parenchyma, most often from aspiration of oropharyngeal anaerobes in patients with impaired consciousness, alcohol use, dysphagia or poor dentition, and less often from Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella or septic emboli. Diagnosis is by chest radiography and CT showing a cavity with air-fluid level, with sputum and blood cultures and exclusion of cavitating cancer and tuberculosis. Treatment is prolonged antibiotics covering anaerobes, with drainage or surgery for non-resolving cases.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Wind-Heat Attacking Lung; Wind-Cold Constricting Lung; Knotted Phlegm and Stasis; Phlegm-Heat Accumulation and Stagnation; Purulent Ulceration and Phlegm Congestion; Blazing Heat Toxin; Lung Excess and Spleen Deficiency; Lung Yin Deficiency; Kidney Yin Deficiency. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: A lung abscess needs medical treatment, and Chinese medicine is adjunctive at most. Seek emergency care for coughing up blood, severe breathlessness, chest pain or confusion.