ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the causes of misdiagnosis of lung abscess and its clinical pathological characters. Methods The clinical data of autopsy-proven lung abscess in Beijing Hospital from 1980 to 1995 were reviewed. Results Twelve patients consisted of 11 males and 1 female. Their age ranged from 60 to 88 years. None of them was clinically diagnosed lung abscess before death. Concomitant dieases were severe and complex, mostly coronary disease, hypertension, COPD, cerebrovascular disease and diabetes mellitus. The clinical presentation and chest X-ray of lung abscess in the elderly were deceptively nonspecific and variable. Over 2 types of pathogens were isolated from sputum culture, mostly klebsiella pneumoniae, pseudomonas aeruginosa, candida. The autopsy showed 3 cases with a isolated lung abscess and 9 cases with lung multi-abscess. Conclusions The reasons for misdiagnosis of lung abscess in the elderly might be the variability of clinical presentation, the other concomitant disease. Frequent pursuit of chest CT scan in suspected cases is guarranted .
