Does a 5-day course of antibiotics in elderly patients with community-acquired pneumonia achieve the established criteria of clinical stability?

Link to article at PubMed

Med Mal Infect. 2020 Oct 20:S0399-077X(20)30755-1. doi: 10.1016/j.medmal.2020.10.015. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine the proportion of elderly patients hospitalised for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in whom a 5-day antibiotic therapy would achieve clinical stability according to American Thoracic Society (ATS) criteria.

METHODS: Patients aged≥75 years, hospitalised for CAP between November 2018 and August 2019, were analysed retrospectively. The American Thoracic Society (ATS) clinical stability criteria (temperature≤37°C, heart rate≤100/min, respiratory rate≤24/min, systolic blood pressure≥90mmHg, oxygen saturation≥90% in room air) were assessed after five days of antibiotic therapy.

RESULTS: Seventy-five patients (mean age 88 years, 49% requiring oxygen therapy) were included. Six died, and at day 5, 36/69 (52%) fulfilled 4/5 stability criteria. The median duration of treatment was 9 days. In 28 patients (41%), it was ≤7 days.

CONCLUSION: In 52% of elderly patients with CAP, a 5-day treatment regimen resulted in clinical stability.

PMID:33096201 | DOI:10.1016/j.medmal.2020.10.015

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *