Introduction:
Airway infections represent one of the most common causes of mortality worldwide. The authors sought to describe patients hospitalized for lung and mediastinum abscesses in Poland from 2009 to 2016. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first evaluation of the disease in Poland.

Material and methods:
The authors conducted a retrospective, population- based study, using data from 14,932 hospital discharge records. Lung and mediastinum abscesses incidence rates were estimated on the basis of data from a Polish hospital morbidity study, carried out by the National Institute of Public Health.

Results:
The study group consisted of 12,049 patients (74.3% male and 25.7% female patients) hospitalized for the first time with the diagnosis of lung or mediastinum abscesses. The mean and median age was 57.2 and 59 years, respectively. The mean age was significantly higher in females than males (57.9 years vs. 57 years, p < 0.05). Patients were hospitalized with the following diagnosis: abscess of lung with pneumonia (60.9%), abscess of lung without pneumonia (24.9%), abscess of lung and mediastinum (2.6%), gangrene and necrosis of lung (2.8%), abscess of mediastinum (9.7%). The average annual incidence of lung abscesses, including gangrene or necrosis of lung, was 35.7 per million (95% CI: 34.1–37.4) and the average annual incidence of mediastinum abscess was 4.8 per million (95% CI: 4.3–5.3). The incidence rates for all cases of lung or mediastinum abscesses did not vary significantly between urban and rural regions.

Conclusions:
Presented recent data on lung and mediastinum abscesses in Poland may be helpful in comparative analyses among European countries.