At an isolated weather station in the central United States, a technician emerges from a small brick shed grasping a balloon. It's not just any birthday party balloon, mind you, but a massive, white sphere more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) in diameter.
Most frequently, the lung abscess arises as a complication of aspiration pneumonia caused by mouth anaerobes. The patients who develop lung abscess are predisposed to aspiration and commonly have periodontal disease.
The main cause of emphysema is smoking. The tiny air sacs or alveoli at the bottom of the lungs, which cover a huge lung area, are surrounded by tiny blood vessels. Here, as the oxygen reaches the alveoli, it is absorbed by the blood vessels and then transferred into the bloodstream and to the rest of the body.