Table 3 Causes of pulmonary cavities in children
From: Necrotizing pneumonia: an emerging problem in children?
| Primary infectious causes |
| Bacterial infections |
| - Necrotizing pneumonia |
| - Lung abscess |
| - Septic pulmonary emboli |
| Uncommon bacterial infections |
| - Actinomyces spp |
| - Nocardia spp |
| - Burkholderia pseudomallei (melioidosis) |
| Mycobacterial infections |
| - Mycobacterium tuberculosis |
| - Non-tuberculous mycobacteria spp |
| Fungal infections |
| - Aspergillus |
| - Mucormycoses |
| - Other – eg. Cryptococcus spp., Pneumocystis jirovecii |
| Helminthic infections |
| - Echinococcus spp |
| - Other – eg. Paragonimus westermani |
| Secondarily infected congenital lung malformations |
| - eg. bronchogenic cysts, congenital pulmonary adenomatoid malformation and bronchopulmonary sequestration |
| - or a congenital diaphragmatic hernia with an intercurrent respiratory illness |
| Other causes |
| Traumatic pseudocysts |
| Underlying immunodeficiencya |
| - eg. chronic granulomatous disease or hyper IgE syndrome with recurrent infections and pneumatoceles persisting >1 yr |
| Malignancy |
| - eg. primary germ cell tumor, lymphoproliferative disorders Langerhan cell histiocystosis |
| Vasculitis syndromes |
| - eg. Wegener granulomatosis, Churg-Strauss syndrome |