RT Book, Section
A1 Koltsida, Georgia
A1 Panitch, Howard B.
A2 Shah, Samir S.
A2 Kemper, Alex R.
A2 Ratner, Adam J.
SR Print(0)
ID 1157321876
T1 Recurrent Pneumonia
T2 Pediatric Infectious Diseases: Essentials for Practice, 2e
YR 2019
FD 2019
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781259861536
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1157321876
RD 2024/10/10
AB A  child  presenting  with  recurrent  respiratory  infections  or  radiographic  abnormalities  poses  a  common  diagnostic  problem  for  general  pediatricians  and  pulmonary  specialists  alike.  Pneumonia  can  be  described  in  both  clinical  and  radiographic  terms.  The  World  Health  Organization  (WHO)  defines  pneumonia  clinically  as  cough  or  dyspnea  in  association  with  labored  breathing  or  tachypnea,  and  radiographically  as  an  opacity  occupying  at  least  part  of  a  single  lobe  and  up  to  the  entire  lung.1,2  The  incidence  of  pneumonia  in  developed  countries  is  approximately  3–3.6  children  per  100,  whereas  in  developing  countries,  it  can  reach  as  high  as  40  per  100  children.3  Recurrent  pneumonia  has  been  defined  as  two  episodes  in  1  year  or  three  in  a  lifetime,  with  radiographic  clearing  between  episodes.4  It  should  be  differentiated  from  persistent  pneumonia,  which  is  defined  as  continuation  of  symptoms  and  radiologic  changes  for  6  weeks  or  more  despite  treatment.5  While  the  incidence  of  recurrent  pneumonia  among  large  populations  of  children  is  unknown,  a  retrospective  cohort  study  of  approximately  30,000  German  children  aged  5–7  years  estimated  the  prevalence  of  recurrent  pneumonia,  defined  as  three  or  more  episodes  in  a  lifetime,  to  be  7.7%.6