Case notes for patients treated in Southfield Sanatorium, with correspondence, charts, reports, forms, medical drawings, photographs and other records noted where relevant. Details recorded in this catalogue include the patient's occupation, location, age at first examination, and date of first examination. Up to three key medical conditions are recorded as written in the record, this may include presenting symptoms or diagnoses. A positive or negative family history of tuberculosis is recorded if taken. The type of treatment given is classified as surgical, nonsurgical, or no treatment, and an outcome is given where recorded.

Sir Robert Philip's classification system for tuberculosis is often used in place of a diagnosis of tuberculosis. The letter L, followed by a number, is used to describe the severity of the local lesion, while S, capital or lower case, indicates the severity of the systemic disturbance. Therefore L1s indicates an early local process with equivalent systemic disturbance, while L3S indicates a case of extensive lung disorder. For the purposes of indexing in this catalogue, L is assumed to refer to a lung lesion unless specified otherwise.

All inpatients at Southfield Sanatorium would have been subject to a sanatorium regime of rest and gradual increases in exercise, which is classified here as 'no treatment'. The sanatorium had limited surgical facilities, and only aspiration, artficial pneumothorax, and pneumoperitoneum were given at Southfield; patients requiring other treatment were sent elsewhere, and these procedures have not been recorded in this catalogue. Nonsurgical treatment refers to any other treatment given, which may include immobilisation in a plaster shell, ultraviolet light therapy, breathing exercises, silence, gold therapy, tuberculin, or chemotherapy (particularly with antibiotics after 1948).