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.
Abscesses may be caused by many different bacteria, fungi, or protozoans, which are kinds of disease-causing microbes. Abscesses result from infections that are or become localized or confined to one part of the body, as opposed to infections that spread throughout the body.