Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about pneumonia in children. And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic,

you can follow along at zero definals.com or in the respiratory section of the Zero to Finals

Pediatrics book. So let's get straight into it.

Pneumonia is simply an infection of the lung tissue. It causes inflammation of the lung

tissue and sputum in the airways and the alveoli. Neumonia can be seen as a consolidation on a chest

x-ray and it can be caused by a bacteria,

virus, or atypical bacteria such as mycoplasma.

So how does pneumonia present?

Well, the typical features are a cough,

which is typically wet and productive of sputum,

a high fever above 38.5 degrees, takakenea, which is a fast respiratory

rate, tachycardia, which is a fast heart rate, increased work of breathing and respiratory

distress, lethargy or tiredness, and delirium, which is acute confusion associated with the infection.

There are a few signs that you can see on examination.

And the main things you want to look for are derangement in the physical observations,

as these can indicate sepsis secondary to the pneumonia. And they are

raised respiratory rate, raised heart rate, low oxygen saturations, hypotension or a low blood

pressure which indicates shock and a fever. The characteristic chest signs that you can see in pneumonia are bronchial breath sounds,

which are harsh breath sounds that are equally loud on inspiration and expiration,

and these are caused by consolidation of the lung tissue around the airway. Focal coarse

crackles, which are caused by air passing through sputum.

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