Gross Vintage Medical Treatments That Did More Harm Than Good

Plombage for Tuberculosis

In the early 20th century, before antibiotics, doctors tried to treat tuberculosis by collapsing parts of the lung to “rest” them. This procedure, called plombage, involved inserting materials like ping-pong balls, paraffin wax, or plastic into the chest cavity. Yes, actual objects were surgically stuffed inside people.

This dangerous approach sometimes caused suffocation, infection, or rejection by the body. Even if the lung healed, patients were left with long-term complications. It was used well into the 1950s until streptomycin and other antibiotics made it obsolete. Still, the idea that stuffing foreign objects into your body could help you breathe better feels more like medical performance art than science.

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