OIL ASPIRATION (LIPOID) PNEUMONIA IN ADULTS

Abstract

In recent years a condition commonly known as lipoid pneumonia but more appropriately termed oil aspiration pneumonia¹ or simply oil pneumonia² has been brought to the notice of the medical profession with increasing frequency. The outstanding features of the disease have been described at length by many writers, and attention has been repeatedly drawn to the danger of using oily medication for infants and, to a lesser degree, for adults. Despite this, it is apparent from the errors in clinical diagnosis detected at postmortem examination that many physicians are still not aware of the relative frequency of this condition, particularly in adults. Laughlen³ in 1925 reported 5 instances of oil pneumonia in human beings, 1 of whom was a man aged 37. The condition had been produced experimentally, however, at an earlier date. Guieysse-Pellissier⁴ in 1920 observed that intratracheal instillation of olive oil was capable of producing a mononuclear and