Abstract
Background: Recurrent pneumonia has been defined as at least 2 episodes of pneumonia in one year or more than three during any period with radiographic clearing between episodes.
Objectives: To determine the frequency of underlying factors for recurrent pneumonia of patients attending outpatients at the Catholic University Hospital between January 1992 and July 2003.
Patients and Methods: A retrospective review of the clinical files of children diagnosed with recurrent pneumonia attending the Paedriatric Respiratory outpatient clinic.
Results: 121 children fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for recurrent pneumonia. Most of them were unilobar. Underlying illnesses included asthma 16%, neurological disorder 15% and pulmonary aspiration syndrome 11%. In 21% of cases no underlying illness was found.
Conclusions: The most common underlying condition for recurrent pneumonia were; asthma, hyper-bronchial responsiveness, neurological disorder and pulmonary aspiration syndrome. A follow-up study needs to be carried out to evaluate whether improved clinicalmanagement of these conditions could effectively lower the risk of a new episode of pneumonia.
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Copyright (c) 2004 Revista Chilena de Pediatría