DIFFERENTIATION OF CONGENITAL CYSTS OF THE LUNG AND THOSE FOLLOWING STAPHYLOCOCCIC PNEUMONIA

Abstract

OUT OF the confusion of "cystic disease of the lungs" there has gradually evolved a definite division of lung cysts into those that are congenital and those that are acquired. Differentiation into those two types is vital since the prognosis and treatment of the two groups are not at all the same. In dealing with infants and young children, we have found some difficulties in the past in differentiating cystlike cavities occurring in the lung fields after acute respiratory infections (usually staphylococcic pneumonia) from true congenital cysts. That we have not been alone in our confusion is witnessed by the fact that occasional lesions reported in the literature as congenital cysts have all the characteristics of postinfectious "pneumatoceles." CONGENITAL CYSTS OF THE LUNG In a review of the cases of "congenital lung cysts" observed at the Children's Memorial Hospital, 12 were found in the records of the past fifteen years.