COLLAPSE THERAPY IN PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS

To the Editor:—  In an editorial comment in The Journal, May 7, it was viewed with surprise that collapse therapy in pulmonary tuberculosis has not resulted in a greater reduction of the mortality to morbidity ratio in the tuberculosis sanatoriums. It was pointed out that Drolet's recent statistical study showed that the ratio of deaths to new cases varied little throughout various communities during a twenty year period. Lest Drolet's statistics be misconstrued as demonstrating the ineffectiveness of collapse therapy, I should like to offer an explanation for this apparent indictment.There was published in the January 1935 issue of the American Review of Tuberculosis a fifteen year survey of artificial pneumothorax treatment in representative American sanatoriums. The results showed that pneumothorax treatment was given in about 10 per cent of the patients. The authors referred only to cases in which there were at least three months of pneumothorax refills. Cases in which pneumothorax