Clinical features
Some characteristic features of Klebsiella pneumonia are presented below:
- most common in men over 40 years of age and is most frequently found in alcoholics
- other predisposing factors are heart or lung disease, diabetes and malignancy
- onset is often sudden with severe systemic upset (high fever, rigors) and pleuritic pain
- sputum is purulent, gelatinous or blood-stained (haemoptysis occurs more often than in most bacterial pneumonias)
- consolidation is usually seen in the upper lobes and may be extensive - swelling of the infected lobe may result in bulging of the fissures on the lateral chest X-ray
- there may be marked necrosis and cavitation
- lung abscess and empyema are more common than in pneumococcal pneumonia
- mortality is 20-50%
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