ABSTRACT
An analysis of case records, medical documentation of the emergency service and out-patient departments of 629 patients with acute pneumonia (AP) showed that infectious-toxic shock was an early grave complication of acute pneumonia. It was observed in 9.4% of patients with acute pneumonia and resulted in a fatal outcome in 5.1%. Infectious-toxic shock developed prevalently in males of young or middle age suffering of concomitant diseases in acute pneumonia due to viral-bacterial associations. At the pre-hospital period shock was detected only in 5.1% of patients due to inadequate examination, underestimation of symptoms and their erroneous interpretation. Clinical manifestations of infectious-toxic shock, their polymorphism may masquerade acute pneumonia symptoms and lead to diagnostic errors.
