Severe mycoplasma pneumonia with pleural effusions in a patient with sickle cell-hemoglobin C(SC) disease. Case report and review of the literature.

We describe a patient with sickle cell hemoglobin C(SC) disease in whom severe pneumonia developed complicated by large bilateral pleural effusions and respiratory failure. Mycoplasma infection was not initially suspected but was subsequently proved serologically. The course of the illness was unusually long. A review of the literature showed occurrence of large pleural effusions to be infrequent for pulmonary infection with Mycoplasma in adults, with only eight such cases previously reported. The possibility of Mycoplasma pneumonia should not be dismissed merely because of the severity of the illness or the presence of pleural effusions.