Agenesis of the Lung

A careful review of the literature indicates that the total failure of a lung to develop is exceedingly rare. Only 37 authentic cases have been reported. Twenty-four of the patients were children under 12 years of age. We wish to add to this series a case of our own. The patients in the recorded cases had the following age distribution: 3 stillborn infants (Gruber 1 and Minne and Gernez 2 ); 5 infants under 1 week of age (Maschka, 3 Theremin, 4 Miller, 5 Hanson 6 and Findlayson 7 ); 13 infants under 6 months of age (Hein, 8 Stein, 9 Theremin, 4 Miller, 5 [2 cases], Gross, 10 Gilkey, 11 Finner, 12 Hepner, 13 Knott, 14 Dyson, 15 Toni 16 and Hurwitz and Stephens 17 ), 2 infants under 3 years of age (Yampolsky, Fowler and Stephens 18 and Mitchell 19 ); 1 child 8 years of age (Ellis 20 ) and 1 child