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. This procedure is often helpful in pointing to the appropriate medical therapy for the problem, and can sometimes be done using video-assisted minimally invasive techniques we have developed at Children's Hospital. This is a contained space within the lung harboring infecting bacteria and fluid.
Treatment is drainage, often by inserting a tube into the airways temporarily.
Occasionally, bad abcesses require removal. Empyema is infection of the pleural cavity, which is the space between the lung and the wall of the chest. This can occur, for example, as a complication of pneumonia in children. Treatment is drainage of the cavity with a tube. Occasionally other procedures need to be performed to eradicate the infection, which can become chronic otherwise.