Lung abscess is a necrotising lung infection characterised by a pus-filled cavitary lesion and is potentially life threatening since it is often complicated to manage and difficult to treat. Lung abscess was a devastating disease in the pre-antibiotic era, when one-third of the patients died, another one-third recovered and the remainder developed debilitating illnesses, such as recurrent abscesses, chronic empyema, bronchiectasis or other consequences of chronic pyogenic infections. In the early post-antibiotic period, sulfonamides did not improve the outcome of patients with lung abscess until the penicillins and tetracyclines were available. Although resectional surgery was often considered a treatment option in the past, the role of surgery has greatly diminished over time because most patients with uncomplicated lung abscess eventually respond to prolonged antibiotic therapy.