[Protracted pneumonia: risk factors and therapeutic policy].

Analysis of the onset and course of lingering pneumonia (LP) to reveal its risk factors and assess its treatment efficacy depending on the presence of the above factors.A retrospective analysis has been made of 67 cases of nonhospital pneumonia running for more than 4 weeks.A positive correlation was found between LP duration and time since LP onset till hospitalization, gamma-globulin level on the hospitalization day, number of antibiotics used in LP treatment. Early short-term administration of glucocorticosteroids and heparin reduced LP duration, frequency of pleurisy and pneumopleurofibrosis.Positive correlation between pneumonia duration and number of the antibiotics may be due to sensitization of the patients as a result of large doses of various antibiotics and persistence of infiltration in the lungs with its further transformation into fibrosis, especially in the presence of immune disorders.