The history of surgery for pulmonary tuberculosis.

Thoracic surgical procedures evolved from surgical management of tuberculosis; lung resections, muscle flaps, and thoracoscopy all began with efforts to control the disease. The discovery of antituberculosis drugs in 1944 to 1946 made sanatorium therapy and collapse therapy in all its forms obsolete and changed thoracic surgery dramatically. Currently, management of tuberculosis is primarily medical, and surgery has a minimal role. Today surgery is usually only performed in patients with tuberculosis when the diagnosis is necessary, who have complications or sequelae of the disease, or who have active disease resistant to therapy.