Commonly misdiagnosed round pneumonia in a child: a case report

Abstract

Round pneumonia, a specific radiological finding in children, is often caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae; but it is easily misdiagnosed with some other diseases, causing many difficulties for clinicians. We described a case report of round pneumonia in a 9-year-old boy, with chest pain, following fever, productive cough, left-sided pulmonary consolidation syndrome, tachypnea, no chest indrawing, and a round homogenous lesion about 4 cm in diameter with a clear border in the left upper lobe position on chest X-ray. He was initially misdiagnosed as a lung tumor. He was correctly diagnosed with round pneumonia prior to pneumonectomy and was successfully treated with antibiotics. Therefore, it is important to carefully analyze round pneumonia cases that are often misdiagnosed, resulting in poor therapy.