Tsunami lung

Abstract

We encountered three cases of lung disorders caused by drowning in the recent large tsunami that struck following the Great East Japan Earthquake. All three were females, and two of them were old elderly. All segments of both lungs were involved in all the three patients, necessitating ICU admission and endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation. All three died within 3 weeks. In at least two cases, misswallowing of oil was suspected from the features noted at the time of the detection. Sputum culture for bacteria yielded isolation of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Legionella pneumophila, Burkholderia cepacia, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The cause of tsunami lung may be a combination of chemical induced pneumonia and bacterial pneumonia.

Impact of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on pneumonia hospitalisations and mortality among adults in northern Miyagi, Japan: a multicentre observational study

“…To understand changes in the incidence of pneumonia, we compared the periods before (1 March 2010-10 March 2011) and after (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30) June 2011) the disaster (table 1). The demographic and clinical pictures of disaster-related pneumonia were similar to those of pre-disaster cases, except that a substantial proportion (27.7%) of post-disaster patients were living in evacuation shelters.…”

Infection surveillance after a natural disaster: lessons learnt from the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011

“…16,17 We observed an outbreak of respiratory illness in May 2011 but the symptoms were generally confined to a cough. 18 Given that this outbreak did not appear to affect children younger than 5 years -who generally spent more time indoors after the disaster than their adult counterparts -the symptoms might be attributed to dusty tsunami debris in the air.…”

Atypical Fungal Vertebral Osteomyelitis in a Tsunami Survivor of the Great East Japan Earthquake

“…Many victims of the tsunami of the Great East Japan Earthquake developed various systemic disorders, termed tsunami lung. 1 The pathophysiology of tsunami lung is thought to involve not only chemically or mechanically induced infl ammation by various substances carried by the tsunami such as soil, sand, and oil but also bacterial infection, induced by substances like Aeromonas species. In fact, case reports of tsunami lung involving Legionella , Escherichia , Aspergillus niger , Mucor species, and S. apiospermum were reported after the Great East Japan Earthquake.…”

“…Some people aspirated water during near drowning and experienced severe respiratory distress, so-called "tsunami lung." 1 In this report, we describe a rare case of a patient who experienced fungal vertebral osteomyelitis due to Scedosporium apiospermum ( S. apiospermum ) after contracting tsunami lung in a near-drowning episode.…”