Recurrent pneumonia in a child: Knitting clinical and radiological features to clinch the diagnosis

Abstract

Childhood pneumonia is a very common cause of morbidity and mortality in children, especially in developing countries. A small proportion of these are due to recurrent pneumonias. This is defined as the occurrence of more than one episode of pneumonia within a single year, or greater than 3 episodes within any duration; with radiographically documented clearing between episodes. A diligent, step-wise clinical approach and judicious laboratory investigations are required to establish clinical diagnosis. In this article, we describe the approach used to establish etiology in a case of recurrent pneumonia.

Keywords

• chest x-ray
• chronic granulomatous disease
• computed tomographic scan
• recurrent pneumonia