Pediatric lung abscess: a retrospective review of 23 cases.

Pulmonary abscess is a rare but critical problem in childhood. We did a retrospective review of 23 children with documented lung abscess who had been admitted and treated at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital over a 20-year period from April 1982 to April 2002. Among the 23 children, 11 cases were primary lung abscess, and 12 were secondary lung abscess. The pathogens were isolated in 16 patients (69.6%), and blood cultures yielded in only 3 patients (13.0%). The most common microorganism isolated in this series was Streptococcus pneumoniae. The 2 patients (8.7%) that died in our series had secondary lung abscess. We herein report the presenting symptoms, bacteriology, clinical management, and outcome of these 23 cases.