Treatment typically is supportive and includes monitoring and observation.

Full recovery is common with proper treatment. Pulmonary laceration usually heals quickly after a chest tube is inserted and is usually not associated with major long-term problems. Pulmonary lacerations usually heal within three to five weeks, and lacerations filled with air will commonly heal within one to three weeks but on occasion take longer. However, the injury often takes weeks or months to heal, and the lung may be scarred. Small pulmonary lacerations frequently heal by themselves if material is removed from the pleural space, but surgery may be required for larger lacerations that do not heal properly or that bleed.

As with other chest injuries such as pulmonary contusion, hemothorax, and pneumothorax, pulmonary laceration can often be treated with just supplemental oxygen, ventilation, and drainage of fluids from the chest cavity. A thoracostomy tube can be used to remove blood and air from the chest cavity. About 5% of cases require surgery, called thoracotomy. Thoracotomy is especially likely to be needed if a lung fails to re-expand; if pneumothorax, bleeding, or coughing up blood persist; or in order to remove clotted blood from a hemothorax. Surgical treatment includes suturing, stapling, oversewing, and wedging out of the laceration. Occasionally, surgeons must perform a lobectomy, in which a lobe of the lung is removed, or a pneumonectomy, in which an entire lung is removed.

General treatment principles are removal from exposure, protection of the airway (i.e., preemptive intubation), and treatment of hypoxemia. Concomitant airway injury with acute bronchospasm often warrants treatment with bronchodilators because of the airway obstruction.

A beneficial role for corticosteroids has not been established by controlled trials in humans. Despite the lack of controlled evidence of efficacy, anecdotal reports of benefits from systemic corticosteroid use continue to appear.

Prophylactic antibiotic drugs have not proved to be efficacious in toxic lung injury. Antibiotics should be reserved for those patients with clinical evidence of infection.

A pneumatocele is a cavity in the lung parenchyma filled with air that may result from pulmonary trauma during mechanical ventilation.

A pulmonary hematoma is a collection of blood within the tissue of the lung. It may result when a pulmonary laceration fills with blood. A lung laceration filled with air is called a pneumatocele. In some cases, both pneumatoceles and hematomas exist in the same injured lung. Pulmonary hematomas take longer to heal than simple pneumatoceles and commonly leave the lungs scarred. A pulmonary contusion is another cause of bleeding within the lung tissue, but these result from microhemorrhages, multiple small bleeds, and the bleeding is not a discrete mass but rather occurs within the lung tissue. An indication of more severe damage to the lung than pulmonary contusion, a hematoma also takes longer to clear. Unlike contusions, hematomas do not usually interfere with gas exchange in the lung, but they do increase the risk of infection and abscess formation.

Hydrocarbon pneumonitis is a kind of chemical pneumonitis which occurs with oral ingestion of hydrocarbons and associated aspiration. It occurs prominently among children, accounting for many hospital admissions each year. Common hydrocarbons involved are mineral spirits, mineral seal oil (common in furniture polish), lamp oil, kerosene (paraffin), turpentine (pine oil), gasoline, and lighter fluid. Pneumatocele is a complication of hydrocarbon pneumonitis. In both childhood and adult pneumonitis, hydrocarbon aspiration occurs at the time of initial ingestion event or subsequently with vomiting. Low viscosity of an ingested hydrocarbon is considered a major factor promoting aspiration (presumably for mechanical reasons). Contrary to aspiration hydrocarbon pneumonitis, hydrocarbon (solvent) vapor inhalation manifests primarily in either central nervous system or cardiac effects.

Treatment in DOCK8 deficiency focuses on preventing and treating infections. Broad-spectrum antibiotics are a common mode of treatment when infection is present, though some infections (like lung abscesses) require surgical treatment. Pneumatocele may be treated with surgery, but the benefit is unclear.

Surgical treatment is also recommended for skin abscesses, along with topical and systemic antibiotics and antifungals.

Long-term treatment with systemic antibiotics, including trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, penicillins, and cephalosporins, is effective in preventing skin and lung infections. Other treatments used in DOCK8 deficiency include sodium cromoglycate, which improves white blood cell function, and isotretinoin, which improves skin condition.

Sometimes, Intravenous immunoglobulin is used as a treatment, but its benefits have not been proven. Levamisole is also ineffective. Mixed clinical outcomes have been found with interferon gamma and omalizumab. Though early research on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was equivocal, later research has shown it to improve immune function. Two patients have been cured by bone marrow transplantation. Cyclosporine A is a current topic of research; preliminary results have shown it to be effective.

Children with DOCK8 deficiency do not tend to live long; sepsis is a common cause of death at a young age. CNS and vascular complications are other common causes of death.