Chest radiographs of near-drowned children.

From 1972 through 1983 there were 10 near-drowned children (7 boys and 3 girls) aged 1 to 4 years, treated as inpatients at the Children's Hospital of the Medical Academy Dresden. Three of them showed a severe aspiration pneumonia which in one case was complicated by bilateral pneumothoraces. In a further five children there were radiological signs of pulmonary oedema. Only in two children were the X-ray pictures of the chest normal.