Lung abscess

A lung abscess is a thick-walled cavity that contains purulent material [1-2]. It is a rare condition in children. It arises as a complication of a poorly controlled pneumonia, and has an estimated incidence of 0.7 per 100,000 hospital admissions/year. A lung abscess can be defined to be \u201cprimary\u201d if it occurs in a previously healthy child or \u201csecondary\u201d if underlying conditions predispose to the onset of the abscess [1-8]. It can be \u201cacute\u201d or \u201cchronic\u201d if it has been present for >6 weeks [1, 9]