A fatal case of Legionnaire's disease following a total laryngectomy.

Legionnaire's disease (LD) has been responsible for the death of many patients in several outbreaks in the United States and abroad. The Legionnaire's bacterium is still unclassified. Deoxyribonucleic acid studies of its genes have not yet found a near relative. A case of a 63-year-old man who had a total larynegectomy for cancer of the larynx is reported. He had an extensive postoperative pneumonia, secondary to LD. The diagnosis was made while the patient was alive, but he died on the 35th hospital day in spite of erythromycin treatment.