[Treatment of rupture of pulmonary echinococcosis to the pleural cavity].

The authors describe 19 cases of rarely encountered complications of hydatid cyst of the lung: rupture into the pleural cavity in 13 patients and simultaneous rupture into the bronchus and pleural cavity in another 6 patients, which accounted for 2.4% of the total number of patients (840). These complications are serious and their diagnosis is made with certain difficulties. Complex roentgeno-bronchological and laboratory methods of examination must be used. Patients with the above-mentioned complications must be subjected to strictly individual surgical treatment in specialized clinics in the early periods of the development of the complication. Organ-preserving operations, supplemented by decortication and pleurectomy whenever necessary, is the method of choice. Temporizing tactics and prolonged nonoperative therapy lead to irreparable changes in the pleura and pulmonary tissue, and later--to extended operations.