Severe community-acquired pneumonia

• Main Author: Potgieter, Peter Daniel
• Other Authors: Linton, David
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2018
• Subjects: Pneumonia; Community-acquired infections
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27658

In this thesis I will review the current knowledge of community-acquired pneumonia, including its classification, pathogenesis, pathology, aetiology, diagnosis, and antibiotic therapy and report my experience with severe community-acquired pneumonia in patients requiring admission to our respiratory intensive care unit. The original research in this thesis comprises a prospective, descriptive analysis of 196 cases of severe community-acquired pneumonia requiring admission to the Respiratory Intensive Unit at Groote Schuur Hospital from January 1987 until December 1992, with emphasis on the influence of aetiology on the severity of pneumonia, the· aetiological diagnosis of pneumonia in severely ill patients, measures of severity of pneumonia, and an audit of ICU therapy and outcome. In addition, different aspects of novel therapies and specific aetiological varieties of pneumonia which have been investigated over the past ten years will be presented.