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Complications of plombage in a Cuban exile
M Sultan1, M E Kelly, G Hilliard
1Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Miami, Jackson Memorial Hospital.
The Journal of the Florida Medical Association
|December 1, 1994
Abstract:
Collapse of the affected lung, or plombage, was a common operative treatment for tuberculosis in the United States in the 1930s and 40s. Due to the lack of antitubercular drugs, this practice continued in Cuba into the 1950s. After 41 years the plombage material in an exile patient was found to be infected. This resulted in the bronchopleural fistula which required a pectoralis muscle flap to close. Physicians should be aware that many Cuban exiles have been treated for tuberculosis via plombage and are at risk for similar complications.