Pediatric Lung Abscess: a Retrospective Review of 22 Cases

Abstract

Background: Lung abscess is a rare and jeopardizing disease. It is still capable of causing substantial mortality in children. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective study on 22 children during a 15-year period in our center. A total of 22 children were identified including 13 boys and 9 girls. Results: Five of them had primary lung abscess and seventeen had secondary type. Thirteen of the cases (60%) were diagnosed only by CT-scan without any other evaluation. Eighteen cases had been managed by antibiotic and the mean duration of antibiotic therapy was 12 days. Surgical procedure was done in 4 cases. Conclusion: Gram positive organisms i.e Streptococcus pneumonia and Staphylococcus aureus were the most prevalent organisms involved in our cases. No complications and mortality were seen in our study.