Lipoid Pneumonia

Lipoid pneumonia (referred to by various authors as oil pneumonia, oil aspiration pneumonia, oil inspiration pneumonia, paraffinoma, paraffin oil tumor and pneumonolipoidosis) occurs most commonly in infants and in the debilitated old, resulting most frequently from the administration of laxative oils or the therapeutic instillation of oils into the nasopharynx with subsequent aspiration of the oily or fatty substance into the lung. Less frequently this lesion has been reported in adults not necessarily debilitated. The lesion was first described by Laughlen1in 1925 in one infant, two children and one adult. Pinkerton2in 1927 reported six cases in infants and children and the following year3reported the results of intratracheal injection of vegetable, animal and mineral oil in rabbits and dogs. The human cases, 106 in number, reported up to April 1936 are reviewed by Ikeda.4He adds five cases of his own. More recently5