Kerosene Pneumonia in Childhood.

Abstract

To assess the clinical manifestation of kerosene pneumonia, we studied20cases with accidental ingestion of kerosene, admitted to the Department of Pediatrics, Kitasato University Hospital in these15years from1983to1998.All cases were divided into two groups by presence of the positive radiological findings on chest X-ray on admission. Eight patients showed some positive radiological findings, and the remaining cases (n=12) did not have abnormal findings on chest X-ray. We compared several points between these two groups as follows,(1) clinical symptoms on admission,(2) results of arterial blood gas analysis,(3) the time which took from ingestion to confirmation of positive radiological findings,(4) 133Xe ventilation scintigraphy and (5) treatment options.There were no significant differences on clinical symptoms on admission nor results of arterial blood gas analysis between these two groups. In5cases, secondary chemical pneumonia appeared over 12 hours after kerosene ingestion. In2cases, 133Xe ventilation scintigraphy revealed impaired lung function after resolution of clinical symptoms and chest X-ray findings.These results suggest that closed observation in the hospital and sequencial radiological evaluation are necessary in the cases of accidental ingestion of kerosene. And functional evaluation, e.g., 133Xe ventilation scintigraphy, is important after resolution of clinical symptoms and chest X-ray findings.