Sammanfattning
Introduction: In southern European countries, Legionella pneumonia is the cause of up to 12% of pneumonia contracted outside hospitals. It is a problem because of the high mortality rate, which increases with delayed diagnosis. The aim of this research was to study patients who had been diagnosed with Legionella pneumonia between January 1995 and November 2000 with respect to predisposing factors, clinical presentation, diagnostic methods, treatment and frequency compared to pneumonia of other etiologies. Materials and methods: The study group was composed of all patients at Hvidovre Hospital diagnosed with Legionella pneumonia in the period 1 January 1995 to 30 November 1995 by LUT, LAT, PCR or culture from tracheal aspiration. Results: The total number of patients was 32, of whom five were excluded. Ten patients had acquired the disease outside hospital, seven patients had been nosocomially infected in Denmark and ten patients had been infected while abroad. The majority (81%) had hyponatremia; 85% showed unilateral infiltrates on first X-ray of the thorax; 44% developed bilateral infiltrates. The overall mortality was 33%. Appropriate antibiotic treatment was begun an average of three days after admission to hospital. A higher mortality rate was seen in cases where treatment was given later. In the period under study there was no increase in the number of cases per year. Discussion: Patients with Legionella pneumonia admitted to Hvidovre Hospital during the study period had a high mortality rate and constituted 0.5% of the total number of cases of pneumonia diagnosed. Paraclinical and clinical findings described in the literature on the subject are also noted in this study.