Antibiotics used to treat pneumonia patients in an outpatient setting fail about one-fifth of the time, according to a study published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
Researchers analyzed the MarketScan Commercial Database and Medicare Supplemental Database. They identified 251,947 patients, older than 18 years who were diagnosed with pneumonia in the outpatient setting. The patients received the following antibiotics for treatment: fluoroquinolone, macrolides, beta-lactam or tetracycline.
Failure of antibiotic treatment was defined as any one of the following events within 30 days of initial antibiotic therapy:
● Getting a refill for the antibiotic
● Switching to a different antibiotic
● Visiting the emergency room
● Getting admitted to the hospital
Researchers found that antibiotics failed for 22.1 percent of the patients. Antibiotic treatment failure increased with age, with about 25.7 percent of those over 65 years experiencing treatment failure.
The death rate was much higher among the antibiotic failure group (18.1 percent), compared to patients for whom antibiotic therapy worked (4.6 percent).
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