Carlo Forlanini (June 11, 1847, Milan, Lombardy – May 26, 1918) was an Italian physician.
In 1870 he earned his medical degree from the University of Pavia, where he studied as an alumnus of Borromeo College, and afterwards joined the staff of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan. Later he was an instructor at the universities of Turin (from 1884) and Pavia (1899), and in 1900 was appointed professor of clinical medicine in Pavia. Today the Carlo Forlanini Institute in Rome is named in his honor. He was the older brother of aviation pioneer Enrico Forlanini (1848-1930).
Carlo Forlanini was a specialist in tuberculosis and respiratory disorders. He realized that the difficulty in curing pulmonary tuberculosis was due to the lungs being in a constant state of expansion and reduction. However, when this action is removed, the "static lung" would be similar to other visceral organs, and from that moment a healing process could take place. In the 1880s he devised an artificial pneumothorax for therapeutic treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. This apparatus brought air into the lung by way of a Saugmann pneumothorax needle, with a water manometer connected to the device to allow for measurement of pleural pressure and air volume.