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Aspiration pneumonia
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Aspiration pneumonia is a lung infection that starts with something going down the wrong pipe. Instead of heading down the esophagus, fluid from the oropharynx, the part of the throat behind the mouth, goes down the airway. That fluid is not sterile: it comes loaded with bacteria.
Swallowing well is a defense. The swallowing reflex closes off the entrance to the airway, and the cough reflex expels whatever slips past. As long as both are working, the little that gets through is not enough to make you sick: the defenses can handle a trickle, not a gush, but if the reflexes are slow, more gets through than they can clear. Then the aspirated material travels all the way to the alveoli, the tiny sacs where the lung exchanges air, and there the bacteria take hold.
There is a similar condition with a different name and a different origin: aspiration pneumonitis. There, what is inhaled is sterile fluid or gastric contents, and the damage is chemical, a burn to the tissue, not an infection.
In brief
Aspiration pneumonia is a lung infection that begins when bacteria-rich fluid from the oropharynx enters the lower airway.
Swallowing and cough reflexes keep aspirated material below the volume needed to cause pneumonia; when they fail, what is aspirated reaches the alveoli and infection sets in there.
The defenses can handle a trickle, not a gush: if the reflex is slow, more gets through than they can clear.
It is not the same as aspiration pneumonitis, a noninfectious chemical injury caused by inhaling sterile fluid or gastric contents.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingAspiration Pneumonia, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated