title: Tsunami lung.
abstract: We encountered three cases of lung disorders caused by drowning in the recent large tsunami that struck following the Great East Japan Earthquake. All three were females, and two of them were old elderly. All segments of both lungs were involved in all the three patients, necessitating ICU admission and endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation. All three died within 3 weeks. In at least two cases, misswallowing of oil was suspected from the features noted at the time of the detection. Sputum culture for bacteria yielded isolation of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Legionella pneumophila, Burkholderia cepacia, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The cause of tsunami lung may be a combination of chemical induced pneumonia and bacterial pneumonia.
authors: Department of Critical Care Medicine, Iwate Medical University, Uchimaru19-1, Morioka, Iwate 020-8505, Japan. yinoue@iwate-med.ac.jp
authors: Yoshihiro
authors: Y
authors: Inoue
authors: Yasuhisa
authors: Y
authors: Fujino
authors: Makoto
authors: M
authors: Onodera
authors: Satoshi
authors: S
authors: Kikuchi
authors: Tatsuyori
authors: T
authors: Shozushima
authors: Nobuyoshi
authors: N
authors: Ogino
authors: Kiyoshi
authors: K
authors: Mori
authors: Hirotaka
authors: H
authors: Oikawa
authors: Yorihiko
authors: Y
authors: Koeda
authors: Hironobu
authors: H
authors: Ueda
authors: Tomohiro
authors: T
authors: Takahashi
authors: Katsutoshi
authors: K
authors: Terui
authors: Toshihide
authors: T
authors: Nakadate
authors: Hidehiko
authors: H
authors: Aoki
authors: Shigeatsu
authors: S
authors: Endo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004190:Disasters; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal; D007564:Japan; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D018410:Pneumonia, Bacterial / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D012121:Respiration, Artificial; D057192:Tsunamis