Aspiration pneumonia and lung abscess

Your progress

Saved on this device.

Target exams

Red flags

• A lung abscess with an air-fluid level on the chest radiograph needs the prolonged antibiotics and the drainage, not just the standard 5-day course of the community-acquired pneumonia
• The aspiration of the gastric contents in a patient with a reduced consciousness (the stroke, the seizure, the intoxication, the post-anaesthetic) is a two-hit injury — the chemical pneumonitis and the bacterial infection
• The foul-smelling sputum is the hallmark of the anaerobic infection — the anaerobes are the dominant flora of the oropharynx and the aspirate
• A patient with a recurrent aspiration pneumonia has a correctable underlying cause (the dysphagia, the achalasia, the GERD, the poor dentition) that must be addressed to prevent the recurrence
• A lung abscess that fails to respond to an adequate antibiotic trial may need the percutaneous or the surgical drainage