Treatment is removal of the involved lung lobe. Pulmonary cyst is a cystic formation in one lobe of the lung. Large cysts will create air trapping and respiratory distress in infancy. In older children, they can become infected. Congenital lobar emphysema is a cystic formation in one lobe of the lung, present at birth.
Infants develop distress when the cyst becomes hyperinflated with breathing.
The hyperinflation may even be life-threatening. Treatment is lobectomy. Pneumonitis is usually easily diagnosed and treated with antibiotics. Occasionally, however, an infant or child may have symptoms and chest X-ray evidence of a pneumonitis, but the diagnosis may not be apparent. Thus, the pediatrician may ask the surgeon to perform a lung biopsy.