Aims : Access educational materials here (1) to describe how lung TB can worsen rapidly and lead to unfavourable outcomes, and how such cases require close collaboration between pulmonologists and surgeons and timely referral of the patient to a surgeon; and (2) to present the need for a multidisciplinary team that can provide an adequate initial treatment for descending mediastinitis, and to describe the diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm that is essential for adequately treating this life-threatening infection.