With treatment, most patients will improve within 2 weeks. Elderly or debilitated patients may need longer treatment.

Those who may be more likely to have complicated pneumonia include:

• Older adults or very young children
• People whose immune system does not work well
• People with other, serious medical problems such as diabetes or cirrhosis of the liver

Your doctor may want to make sure your chest x-ray becomes normal again after you take a course of antibiotics. However, it may take many weeks for your x-ray to clear up.

Possible complications include:

• Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a severe form of respiratory failure
• Empyema or lung abscesses. These are infrequent, but serious, complications of pneumonia. They occur when pockets of pus form inside or around the lung. These may sometimes need to be drained with surgery.
• Respiratory failure, which requires a breathing machine or ventilator
• Sepsis , a condition in which there is uncontrolled swelling (inflammation) in the body, which may lead to organ failure

Call your doctor if you have:

• Worsening respiratory symptoms
• Shortness of breath, shaking chills, or persistent fevers
• Rapid or painful breathing
• A cough that brings up bloody or rust-colored mucus
• Chest pain that worsens when you cough or inhale
• Night sweats or unexplained weight loss
• Signs of pneumonia and weak immune system, as with HIV or chemotherapy

Infants with pneumonia may not have a cough. Call your doctor if your infant makes grunting noises or the area below the rib cage is retracting while breathing.

Images

Pneumonia

Pneumococci organism

Lungs

White nail syndrome

Respiratory system

Pneumococcal pneumonia

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Review Date: 04/27/2010
Reviewed By: Allen J. Blaivas, DO, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, UMDNJ-NJMS, Attending Physician in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Veteran Affairs, VA New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange, NJ. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)