[Microbiological study of post mortem lung biopsy in pediatric patients].

Aim: The aim of this study was to correlate the morphologic and microbiologic findings of the post mortem biopsies of a series of pediatric patients.
Material and Methods: A complete morphologic study of all the organs of the patients included in the study was performed. In the pulmonary samples provided by the pathologist, the presence of aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms and fungi were determined.
Results: Ninety-three pulmonary biopsies corresponding to 77 dead patients (47 infants and 30 fetuses) were undertaken. Forty-five patients showed pulmonary histology of infectious processes. The concordance between the morphology and the microbiologic culture was of 66.2%. The microorganisms most frequently isolated were gram positive cocci (46.4%) followed by gram negative bacillus (30.4%).
Conclusions: Although post mortem pulmonary tissue cultures should be interpreted with caution without first relating these with the morphologic findings and the clinical characteristics of the patient, a statistically significant agreement was observed between the anatomo-pathological study and the microbiologic findings.