ObjectiveTo investigate the epidemiology, etiology and prognosis of pneumonia in lung transplantation recipients. MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the follow-up data of 42 case times (40 patients) of allogenic lung transplantation between March 2005 and August 2014. There were 29 males and 11 females with a mean age of 52.4±13.8 years. There were 32 case times with double lung transplantation, and 10 case times with single lung transplantation. Two patients underwent lung transplantation twice at an interval of 6.5 years and 4.0 years, respectively. ResultsIn 42 case times of lung transplantation, 26 case times had forty-two episodes of pneumonia throughout the follow-up period of median 146 days (range 3 to 2 704 days). Microbiological etiology was established in 36 case times of pneumonia. Bacterial pneumonia (68.1%) was more frequent than fungal (10.6%) and viral pneumonia (8.5%). The cumulative risk of a pneumonia episode increased sharply in the first 30 days after transplantation. A percentage of 38.1% of total pneumonia episodes occurred within 30 days after transplantation, predominately due to Gram negative bacilli. While pneumonia of gram-negative bacilli occurred earliest with a median of 20 days (range 8-297 days). pneumonia caused by viruses (283 days, range 186-482 days) appeared significantly later than gram-negative bacilli, and unknown etiology (44.5 days, range 3-257 days) (P=0.001 and P=0.019, respectively). The survival rate in 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years was 66.1%, 56.3%, and 36.2%, respectively. pneumonia episode within 30 days after lung transplantation was associated remarkably with mortality risk (P=0.03) in lung transplantation recipients. The total blood loss during transplantation procedure and post-transplantation intubation time were associated significantly with early onset of pneumonia (≤30 days) by univariate analysis. ConclusionRecognition of epidemiology, etiology and chronology of post-transplantaion pneumonia has implications relevant for appropriate management and optimal antibiotic prescription in lung transplantation recipients.