Meanwhile, the patient is ill and will likely get worse waiting for culture results. For most pneumonias the choice of antibiotic is not medically difficult and treatment should not be delayed. The lungs are normally divided into five lobes, three for the right and two for the left lung. An example of lobar pneumonia is shown in Figure 1. Lobar pneumonia is probably the most common type of pneumonia seen.
Pneumococcal pneumonia is something of a paradox.
The responsible organism is exquisitely sensitive to penicillin and patient response is often dramatic. Yet this same bacterium is responsible for thousands of pneumonia deaths each year in this country. For any antibiotic to work, the body must mobilize its own response to the infecting organism. This natural response is in part the increased white blood cells seen in most infections. Without this and other normal host defenses even the best antibiotics are of no use.