Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Solitary Pulmonary Lesion

1961; American Medical Association; Volume: 83; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1001/archsurg.1961.01300130085010

1538-3644

John R. Pellett,

Medical Imaging and Pathology Studies

The ever-increasing education of both the general public and the medical profession concerning the need for periodic complete physical examination, plus the greater use of routine, preemployment and mass survey chest x-ray studies in the search for tuberculosis and lung cancer continues to uncover more people with pulmonary pathology. Such individuals may have no symptoms, unrelated complaints, mild symptoms, or far-advanced disease. In general, the latter group present considerably less difficulty than the others. It is safe to state that the patient with little or no symptomatology and an abnormal x-ray, particularly a solitary pulmonary lesion, may present a most difficult problem in management for several reasons. In spite of adequate medical advice concerning the danger of malignancy, it may be ignored because of general good health and little subjective difficulty, or the patient may be advised to undergo a period of watchful waiting without further study. The basic problem