[ACUTE RESPIRATORY DISTRESS SYNDROME CAUSED BY BETA-LACTAM ANTIBIOTICS]

We report a case of iatrogenic lesion of the lungs in a 61 year old patient following simultaneous subtotal resection and plastic surgery of esophagus using a gastric stem with the removed cardial portion along with subtotal mediastinal lympho-dissection for the treatment of 2 x 1 cm T2NoMO tumour in the middle third of esophagus. The patient's medical history contained no evidence of previous pulmonary pathology, preoperative chest X-ray study revealed neither focal nor infiltrative changes in the lungs. On day 5 after extensive surgical intervention with the use of a parenteral beta-lactam antibiotic, the patient developed acute respiratory distress the symptoms of which increased wavelike during the next 4.5 weeks in association with subfebrility, leukocytosis, enhanced ESR and large shaded areas in the lungs. These conditions were regarded as signs of pneumonia that required the application of increasingly more powerful beta-lactam antibiotics. All these symptoms became less apparent and completely disappeared within 2 days and 1 week respectively after withdrawal of the antibiotics and prescription of parenteral prednisolone. It confirmed the iatrogenic origin of lung lesions regarded by the authors as recurring acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by beta-lactam antibiotics.