Lung Puncture-Aspiration as a Bacteriologic Diagnostic Procedure in Acute Pneumonias of Infants and Children

Abstract

Lung puncture-aspiration is simple and generally innocuous. For the study of acute pneumonia it is superior to examination of naso pharyngeal, throat or laryngeal cultures and gives more positive re sults than does blood culture. It can be extremely useful in investi gational studies and with selected patients in whom identification of the precise pathogen is necessary for optimal antibiotic therapy.