Necrotizing Pneumonitis and Empyema due to Microaerophilic Streptococci.

THE role of anaerobic streptococci and other anaerobes in various pulmonary and pleural infections is well established. As a rule, these organisms are involved in mixed infections with other anaerobes or aerobes. The types of infections involved vary from fulminating pulmonary gangrene to isolated lung abscess or empyema. A number of these infections have been found to be secondary to infection elsewhere in the body, to carcinoma or foreign body or to aspiration. The purpose of this paper is to report 3 cases of necrotizing pneumonitis and empyema that presented difficult diagnostic and therapeutic problems; microaerophilic streptococci were isolated in . . .