1 Tuberculosis | www.smgebooks.com Copyright  Inzirillo F.This book chapter is open access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited. Gr up SM Surgical Treatment of Tuberculosis, Yesterday and Today Francesco Inzirillo 1 *, Simon Tiberi 2 , Marco Donati 1 , Claudio Della Pona 1 and Mario Robustellini 1 1 Department of Thoracic Surgery, E.Morelli Hospital, ASST Valtellina e Alto Lario, Sondalo (SO), Italy 2 Division of Infection, Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK *Corresponding author: Francesco Inzirillo, Thoracic Surgery Department, E. Morelli Hospi- tal, Italy, Tel: +39 0342808622; Fax: +39 0342808616; Email: francescoinzirillo@gmail.com Published Date: May 20, 2016 INTRODUCTION Pulmonary Tuberculosis (TB) is the disease that spawned Thoracic Surgery and Respiratory Medicine; in the recent past was called the “Insidious Disease” or “consumption” or “white death” and can now also be defined “the phoenix of Thoracic Surgery”. This Comparison highlights the resurgence of a disease that was never completely eradicated. Today, many doctors think it is incredible that TB was the disease that created and forged, the Thoracic Surgeon and yet this fact is evident in all the centers where surgery for TB was a routine daily practice. On the other hand, the great enemy “Lung Cancer” is not even “old enough” if we consider that at the beginning of the 19 th century it was considered amongst the rare tumours. The beginning of its explosion coincided with World War I, with the spread of cigarette smoking amongst soldiers and with all issues related to urbanization and air pollution.