25 Jul Shorter Course of Antibiotics May Be Enough For Community Acquired Pneumonia

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Ane Uranga MD
Department of Pneumology, Galdakao-Usansolo Hospital
Galdakao, Bizkaia, Spain

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Despite clear benefits of shorter antibiotic treatments, reducing the duration of treatment remains challenging in daily clinical practice. Actually, IDSA/ATS recommendations for Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) suggested a minimum of 5 days of treatment based on clinical stability criteria. However, in our study the median of duration of antibiotic treatment in the control group was as high as 10 days.

The main finding is that receiving 5 days antibiotic treatment in hospitalized patients suffering from CAP is not inferior to arbitrary treatment schedules in terms of clinical success.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: Duration of antibiotic treatment in  Community Acquired Pneumonia should be based on clinical stability criteria leading to a significant reduction in treatment duration without increasing the rate of adverse outcomes.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Future research should focus on severe  Community Acquired Pneumonia as well as all types of pneumonia in order to assess whether withdrawing antibiotic treatment based on clinical stability criteria is also safe among those patients.

MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Response: This study adds a new perspective due to the distinctive design under real-world conditions in which physicians are free to choose the most appropriate antibiotic. In addition, other variables that are known to be more important for patients were assessed obtaining satisfying results, such as, time until clinical improvement and return to normal activity.

MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.

Citation:

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Last Updated on July 25, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD