A new report in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that “shorter antibiotic treatment durations may be as safe and effective as longer ones for a small subset of patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).” CIDRAP has the news.
A team of researchers analyzed data from 67 Michigan hospitals from 2017 through 2014 to compare outcomes in CAP patients with shorter versus longer antibiotic courses. Only around 10% of the people hospitalized with CAP over the study period met the “eligibility criteria for short-course therapy, with most being excluded because of underlying comorbidities.”
7.9% of those patients received “three-to-four days of antibiotics, and the median antibiotic duration was 7 days.” Thirty-day adjusted risk ratios for short- versus long-course antibiotic therapy were “0.89 for mortality, 1.07 for readmission, 0.94 for urgent visit, and 1.01 for C difficile infection. Adverse events were similar in both groups.”
According to the study authors, the results are “most applicable to non-intensive care unit CAP patients who are clinically stable after three days. But the study has identified critical research questions, they add.”
