I think his point was that they didn’t just get food or water in their lungs once, but frequently over a long period of time, which caused damage & made an area of the lungs into a suitable environment for anaerobic bacteria to live.
Yep! Specifically, in a patient who is constantly aspirating food (say, someone who’s throat muscles are messed up), sometimes remodeling occurs that blocks off a section of the lung, making an air-free area.
The problem is, if someone, say, has a seizure and inhales their own vomit (one time), some doctors might give antibiotics that specifically target anaerobes (as they were trained to), but they really shouldn’t, and there isn’t even any research saying that they should.
Yes. Aspiration pneumonia is any pneumonia caused by aspirating fluids or solids. Anaerobic pneumonia is pneumonia caused by an infection of anaerobic bacteria.
I do not know of any anaerobic pneumonia that is not brought on by aspirating something, but there definitely are aspiration pneumonias that aren’t anaerobic pneumonias, such as the vomit example I gave in my above comment.
What does actually happen to people who get food or water in their lungs, then get very sick or die, and are diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia?
I think his point was that they didn’t just get food or water in their lungs once, but frequently over a long period of time, which caused damage & made an area of the lungs into a suitable environment for anaerobic bacteria to live.
Yep! Specifically, in a patient who is constantly aspirating food (say, someone who’s throat muscles are messed up), sometimes remodeling occurs that blocks off a section of the lung, making an air-free area.
The problem is, if someone, say, has a seizure and inhales their own vomit (one time), some doctors might give antibiotics that specifically target anaerobes (as they were trained to), but they really shouldn’t, and there isn’t even any research saying that they should.
Is there a difference between aspiration pneumonia and anerobic pneumonia?
Yes. Aspiration pneumonia is any pneumonia caused by aspirating fluids or solids. Anaerobic pneumonia is pneumonia caused by an infection of anaerobic bacteria.
I do not know of any anaerobic pneumonia that is not brought on by aspirating something, but there definitely are aspiration pneumonias that aren’t anaerobic pneumonias, such as the vomit example I gave in my above comment.