(FIBRINOUS OR PLASTIC PLEURISY)
The affection may be primary or secondary. As an independent affection
it is rare. It may follow exposure to wet and cold or it may be due to
mechanical injury. The disease may set in with pain in the side, slight
fever and the friction sound of pleurisy may be present. These symptoms
last a few days and then disappear and no exudation occurs. The pleural
surfaces become more or less united.
As a secondary process, dry =plastic pleurisy= arises from extension of
the inflammation in acute or chronic diseases of the lung, especially
pneumonia. Abscesses, gangrene and cancers are also causes. It
sometimes occurs in acute articular rheumatism, and in a large number
of cases is associated with =tuberculosis=. This condition may be a
complication in chronic Bright’s disease and in chronic alcoholism.
In the =fibrinous form of pleurisy= the serum is scant and the membrane
is covered with a sheathing of lymph, which finally organizes and
adhesion takes place between the opposing surfaces.