[Destroyed lung (author's transl)].

The expression of "destroyed lung" is, now, accepted to designate the large destructions of the lung, secondary to pulmonary and essentially infectious diseases, the cure of which is obtained but with important sequelae. The main cause remains tuberculosis, cured by chemotherapy. Some large pulmonary suppurations, treated by antibiotics, can lead to the same sequelae. These "destroyed lungs" can keep an asymptomatic form. But often, about ten years after the initial disease, they cause several troubles such as progressive dyspnea leading to irreversible respiratory insufficiency, repeated pulmonary infectious episodes and hemoptysis, the risk of which is increased by aspergillosis. The radiological aspect of these "destroyed lungs" is made of opacities with multiple cavities or with one unique large cavity. The mechanism of hemoptysis has been understood recently: all destructive lesion of the pulmonary tissue produces as a consequence a development of the systemic blood circulation, bronchial or parietal, with reverse blood circulation from systemo-pulmonary anastomoses-which can produce capillary dilatations-into the pulmonary artery. All these complications can lead to a surgical treatment. Embolization of bronchial arteries is a less aggressive method when hemoptysis is the main symptom. These acquires "destroyed lungs" can be compared to those caused by extensive pseudokystic bronchiectases. For both cases clinical aspects and therapeutic methods are similar, though the lesions are fixed and likely congenital in the last form.