Pneumonia, or pneumonia, is a fairly common disease. However, unlike a common cold, the disease has unpleasant statistics - up to 6 percent of people who encounter pathology die from it every year. It follows that the therapy of pneumonia must be thorough, which will certainly affect the quality of human life during the illness, because labor activity and the usual rhythm will have to be replaced by observing the hospital regimen.
Therefore, patients often ask the question: how much pneumonia is treated? And the answer to it cannot be unequivocal, because the duration of the disease depends on the person’s age, his general health and the severity of the disease.
Pneumonia - what is it?
Pneumonia is a disease characterized by inflammation of the lung tissue. The causative agent of the pathology is an infection that penetrates the lungs and becomes a catalyst for the inflammatory process in the tissues.
At first glance, it is quite difficult to distinguish pneumonia from the common cold, which is why it is important to consult a doctor on time and carefully follow all his recommendations. In this case, the question of how much pneumonia is treated is unlikely to be relevant, because the disease will pass as quickly as possible and without complications.
Pneumonia is diagnosed by the following symptoms:
- dyspnea;
- cough with sputum;
- fever;
- pain in the sternum.
The symptoms described are listed in order of probability from the presence. Dyspnea and cough with sputum production are noted in all patients, temperature - in the majority, and sternum pain is less common.
Pneumonia in children
According to the etiology of the disease, pneumonia occurs most often in children, mainly under the age of seven. This is due to the cellular composition of the blood. In an adult, the number of subspecies of leukocytes is balanced in such a way as to protect the body from infection, respond to its penetration, and destroy in various ways. In preschool children, the leukocyte formula is changed due to the predominance of lymphocytes, which makes the immune system weaker.
Therefore, the answer to the question of how much pneumonia is treated in children will be unequivocal: the disease can take a long time, up to several weeks, and the course of the disease will be more severe, with a pronounced symptomatic picture.
Pneumonia in old age
No less dangerous than for young children, pneumonia is for patients older than 65 years. At this age, the immune system is weakened by existing chronic diseases, therefore, answering the question “how much pneumonia is treated in adults after reaching the threshold of old age”, we can answer the following: about the same number of days as children, that is, more than the patient young and middle age, ceteris paribus.
Patients in this category are strongly advised to undergo treatment in a hospital setting. Constant monitoring, the ability to administer medications through injections and droppers, bed rest and a special diet will speed recovery and avoid complications. The term, how much pneumonia is treated in adults with pneumonia in the hospital, averages 10-14 days, after which they continue to be treated at home on an outpatient basis.
Ambulatory treatment
Depending on the severity of the disease and the patient’s well-being, pneumonia can be treated both in a hospital and at home. But it is important to note that therapy at home should be in compliance with a sparing bed rest. To carry pneumonia “on the legs” is extremely dangerous.
About 70 percent of all patients can be treated at home. Adults usually encounter a bacterial type of pneumonia, that is, a bacterium (streptococci, staphylococci, hemophilic bacillus), which entered the body and was not destroyed by the immune system until the development of a symptomatic picture, is a provocateur of the disease.
How long it takes to treat pneumonia in adults on an outpatient basis depends on compliance with the doctor’s instructions and the correct choice of therapy. Under favorable conditions, improvement in well-being occurs after 4-5 days, but weakness can persist longer. Full recovery occurs in 15-20 days.
Inpatient treatment
Before finding out how much pneumonia is treated in adults in a hospital, it is important to clarify that staying in a hospital is only required in certain cases.
First of all, the severity of the disease and the risk of complications are assessed. Thus, hospitalization is recommended if the patient is over 65 years old, if his condition is worrying (confusion, high fever, accelerated heart rate, complications), or if it is difficult for the patient to service himself.
Sometimes a doctor may recommend an outpatient regimen, but after passing tests and detecting, for example, a high level of urea in the blood, transfer the patient to a hospital.
Since patients in a more serious condition fall into the hospital, the question of how many days pneumonia is treated in adults has a different answer than in the case of outpatient monitoring.
In severe cases of the disease, the patient's incapacity for work can be up to one and a half months. In this case, even after the specified period, residual effects after the disease can be observed.
Pathological foci
When it comes to the severity of the disease, it must be clarified that it is not an abstract quantity. There are 4 categories of pneumonia, based on the area of ​​the lesion:
- focal;
- segmental;
- shared;
- croupous.
To understand the principle of classification, it is important to represent the anatomical structure of the lung. A segment of the lung is a patch of tissue, conditions from a variety of alveoli. Several segments are combined into the concept of pulmonary lobe. Tissues of both lungs are combined by the concept of croup.
Obviously, the larger the size of the tissue was subjected to inflammation, the brighter the symptoms will be and the longer it will take to wait for recovery. Therefore, a comparison of how much adult segmental pneumonia and focal inflammation are treated will be in favor of the first by the number of days that will have to be spent on sick leave.
Patient immunity
The duration of the disease depends on the patient to the same extent as the severity of the disease. First of all, it is necessary to take into account factors such as the patient's age and state of health. Chronic diseases prolong the period of pneumonia, make the symptomatic picture brighter due to reduced immunity.
A decrease in the activity of the immune system can also occur with specific diseases, for example, with HIV or primary immunodeficiencies. Cytostatics and glucocorticosteroids, which are used to treat autoimmune diseases to suppress the immune response, negatively affect immunity.
Patient's Living Conditions
The second category of factors affecting how much pneumonia is treated includes the patient's behavior and his living conditions. Poor nutrition, unsanitary conditions, financial difficulties that prevent the purchase of necessary medications, or the patient’s unwillingness to adhere to the regime adversely affect the healing process.
Sometimes the cause of prolonged pneumonia is the wrong choice of medication, most often antibiotics.