Aspiration Pneumonia : Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Cures and Remedies for Foreign Body Aspiration Pneumonia

Depending upon the type, quantity, and frequency of foreign materials inhaled into the lungs (aspiration), one may develop a host of respiratory complications -including pneumonia. Even though there are several types of respiratory disorders that can result from aspiration, almost all of them can be classified into the following three distinct categories:

• Chemical pneumonia (CP) (also known as Mendelson syndrome) results from the parenchymal inflammatory reaction caused by aspiration of a large volume of gastric contents/stomach acid. Symptoms of Chemical Pneumonia include: Shortness of breath, Cough, Fever and Pinkish/frothy sputum.

  The diagnosis of chemical pneumonitis may require a Careful review of patient's history, a Bronchoscopy, Chest x-rays, and Blood oxygen level measurements. Treatment for Chemical Pneumonia usually consist of oxygen therapy, and in some cases, a patient may need be placed on a mechanical breathing (mechanical ventilator/respirator) device. If there is a build up of excessive secretions or presense of aspirated materials (such as food particles) in the trachea and/or the airways, suctioning of the same may also be required. Depending upon the type/quality of foreign material to be removed, either a flexible bronchoscopy or rigid bronchoscopy may also be considered. Considering that it is often difficult to differentiate between chemical pneumonia and bacterial pneumonia, a complete course of antibiotic drug therapy may also be prescribed.

  Prognosis of Chemical Pneumonia: Even though most cases of milder forms of chemical pneumonitis recover within a short time, some CP patients do develop serious respiratory complications such as acute respiratory distress syndrome, (ARDS), or a bacterial respiratory disease. Survival rate for patients diagnosed with serious chemical pneumonitis is between 50% to 70%.

• Bacterial pneumonia (BP) is caused by inhalation of bacterial pathogens. Aspiration Bacterial Bneumonitis (Aspiration BP) is often a case of community acquired pneumonia or a hospital acquired pneumonia.

  Hospital-acquired pneumonia (nosocomial pneumonia) usually involves oropharyngeal colonization of aspirated gram-negative bacteria (such as Acinetobacter, Enterobacter, Klebsiella (Friedländer's pneumonia), Pseudomonas, Proteus, and Serratia), Streptococcus, Haemophilus influenzae, Legionella, mycoplasma, chlamydia, and viruses, etc. Anaerobic pneumonia, on the other hand, results from aspiration of large quantities of anaerobes. Hospital Acquired Pneumonia tends to be far more severe than community acquired pneumonia.

• Exogenous lipoid pneumonia is caused by aspiration of oily substances such as mineral oil, vegetable oil, cooking oil vapors, etc.

Additional pneumonia related information is available at this site at: Bacterial Pneumonia, Fungal Pneumonia, and Viral Pneumonia.

Don't forget to check out Lung Disease News section of this website for the latest Aspiration Pneumonia News and our Lung Disease Articles Library for the latest Aspiration Pneumonia related Articles.

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