Question

Round pneumonia is seen with:

• A. Streptococcal pneumonia
• B. Kerosene oil aspiration
• C. Lung cancer
• D. Mendelson syndrome

Hint:

This spherical consolidation in children is most often caused by the pneumococcus.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Step 1: Round (spherical) pneumonia is a focal consolidation that appears rounded on imaging. It is seen mainly in children because the collateral channels of air drift (pores of Kohn and canals of Lambert) are poorly developed, so infection stays localised and spreads spherically.

Step 2: The most common organism responsible for round pneumonia is Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus). Hence option a is correct.

Step 3: Kerosene aspiration causes hydrocarbon pneumonitis (usually basal), Mendelson syndrome is chemical aspiration pneumonitis of gastric acid, and lung cancer gives a mass lesion, not infective round pneumonia. The clinical importance of round pneumonia is that it can mimic a tumour mass and must be differentiated from it.

Step 4: Therefore round pneumonia is associated with streptococcal (pneumococcal) pneumonia, option a.