Acute tracheobronchitis

Causes

Adenovirus and mycoplasma pneumoniae are the commonest causative organisms. The condition maybe complicated by bacterial infection (such as H. influenza and/ streptococcus pneumonia infections) particularly in smokers and COPD patients.

Clinical suspicion & diagnosis

It is a very common condition, suspected when the patient presents with acute fever, cough (usually productive) and a chest x-ray shows no abnormalities.

Treatment

The disease is usually self limited and treatment is essentially symptomatic. Amoxycillin (or its derivatives) maybe tried if the sputum is purulent.