Antibiotic Treatment Strategies for Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Adults
Postma, Douwe F.; Van Werkhoven, Cornelis H.; Van Elden, Leontine J R; Thijsen, Steven F T; Hoepelman, Andy I M; Kluytmans, Jan A J W; Boersma, Wim G.; Compaijen, Clara J.; Van Der Wall, Eva; Prins, Jan M.; Oosterheert, Jan J.; Bonten, Marc J M
(2015) New England Journal of Medicine, volume 372, issue 14, pp. 1312 - 1323
(Article)
Abstract
BACKGROUND The choice of empirical antibiotic treatment for patients with clinically suspected community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) who are admitted to non-intensive care unit (ICU) hospital wards is complicated by the limited availability of evidence. We compared strategies of empirical treatment (allowing deviations for medical reasons) with beta-lactam monotherapy, beta-lactam-macrolide combination therapy,
... read more
or fluoroquinolone monotherapy. METHODS In a cluster-randomized, crossover trial with strategies rotated in 4-month periods, we tested the noninferiority of the beta-lactam strategy to the beta-lactam-macrolide and fluoroquinolone strategies with respect to 90-day mortality, in an intention-to-treat analysis, using a noninferiority margin of 3 percentage points and a two-sided 90% confidence interval. RESULTS A total of 656 patients were included during the beta-lactam strategy periods, 739 during the beta-lactam-macrolide strategy periods, and 888 during the fluoroquinolone strategy periods, with rates of adherence to the strategy of 93.0%, 88.0%, and 92.7%, respectively. The median age of the patients was 70 years. The crude 90-day mortality was 9.0% (59 patients), 11.1% (82 patients), and 8.8% (78 patients), respectively, during these strategy periods. In the intention-to-treat analysis, the risk of death was higher by 1.9 percentage points (90% confidence interval [CI], -0.6 to 4.4) with the beta-lactam-macrolide strategy than with the beta-lactam strategy and lower by 0.6 percentage points (90% CI, -2.8 to 1.9) with the fluoroquinolone strategy than with the beta-lactam strategy. These results indicated noninferiority of the beta-lactam strategy. The median length of hospital stay was 6 days for all strategies, and the median time to starting oral treatment was 3 days (interquartile range, 0 to 4) with the fluoroquinolone strategy and 4 days (interquartile range, 3 to 5) with the other strategies. CONCLUSIONS Among patients with clinically suspected CAP admitted to non-ICU wards, a strategy of preferred empirical treatment with beta-lactam monotherapy was noninferior to strategies with a beta-lactam-macrolide combination or fluoroquinolone monotherapy with regard to 90-day mortality.
show less
Download/Full Text
The full text of this publication is not available.
Keywords: BETA-LACTAM MONOTHERAPY, CONSORT 2010 STATEMENT, ATYPICAL PATHOGENS, RANDOMIZED-TRIALS, ECONOMIC BURDEN, CLINICAL-TRIALS, THERAPY, DESIGN, GUIDELINES, NONINFERIORITY, General Medicine, Comparative Study, Journal Article, Randomized Controlled Trial, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
ISSN: 0028-4793
Publisher: Massachussetts Medical Society
(Peer reviewed)