Alternate Names: Bacterial pneumonia

Causes and Risks: Pneumonia is a very common, serious illness and affects about 1 out of 100 people each year. It is caused by many different organisms and can range in seriousness from mild to life-threatening illness. There are different categories of pneumonia.

Two of these types are hospital-acquired and community-acquired. Common types of community-acquired pneumonia are pneumococcal pneumonia and Mycoplasma pneumonia. In some people, particularly the elderly and those who are debilitated, pneumonia may follow influenza. Hospital-acquired pneumonia tends to be more serious because defense mechanisms against infection are often impaired.

Some of the specific pneumonia-related disorders include:

• aspiration pneumonia
• atypical pneumonia
• bacterial pneumonia
• Chlamydial pneumonia (c. trachomatis)
• Chlamydial pneumonia (psittacosis)
• CMV pneumonia
• eosinophilic pneumonia
  • also called acute pulmonary eosinophilia (Loeffler’s syndrome)
• hospital-acquired pneumonia
• hydrocarbon pneumonia
• hypersensitivity pneumonitis
• Legionella pneumonia
• Mycoplasma pneumonia (walking pneumonia)
• necrotizing pneumonia
• pediatric pneumonia
• Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia
• pneumonia in immunocompromised host
• pneumonia with lung abscess
• pyogenic pneumonia
• viral pneumonia

Prevention: Vaccination (flu vaccine, pneumovax) may be helpful in preventing some types of pneumonia. Coughing and deep breathing may help prevent some forms of hospital-acquired pneumonia. See also the specific types of pneumonia.

Symptoms:

• cough
  • with mucus-like, greenish, or pus-like sputum
• chills with shaking
• fever
• easy fatigue
• chest pain
  • sharp or stabbing
  • increased by deep breathing
  • increased by coughing
• headache
• loss of appetite
• nausea and vomiting
• general discomfort, uneasiness, or ill feeling (malaise)
• joint stiffness (rare)
• muscular stiffness (rare)
• rales

• shortness of breath
• sweating, excessive
• skin, clammy
• nasal flaring
• coughing up blood
• breathing, rapid
• breathing, absent temporarily
• anxiety, stress, and tension
• abdominal pain

Signs and Tests: Crackles are heard when listening to the chest with a stethoscope (auscultation).

Tests include:

• a chest X-ray
• a sputum gram stain
• a CBC
• arterial blood gases

• thoracic CT
• routine sputum culture
• pulmonary ventilation/perfusion scan
• pleural fluid culture
• lung needle biopsy

Treatment: The goal of treatment is to cure the infection with antibiotics. If the pneumonia is caused by a virus, antibiotics will not be effective.

Supportive therapy includes oxygen and respiratory treatments to remove secretions, if indicated.

Prognosis: Most patients will respond to the treatment and improve in two weeks. Elderly or debilitated patients who fail to respond to treatment may die from respiratory failure.

Complications:

• acute respiratory failure
• empyema

CALL YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER IF SYMPTOMS OF PNEUMONIA DEVELOP.