There are various types of antibiotics available for patients hospitalized with pneumonia, but it turns out the common antibiotics are just as effective as the more expensive alternatives, according to a study conducted by the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands.
UMC Utrecht researchers compared three different pneumonia treatment strategies in seven hospitals over a 90-day period. The treatments studied included a beta-lactam antibiotic, which is a traditional medicine similar to penicillin; a beta-lactam antibiotic paired with a macrolide antibiotic; and a relatively new fluoroquinolone antibiotic.
The mortality rate for all three treatment strategies was roughly 10 percent, indicating relatively no difference in their effectiveness.
The beta-lactam antibiotics, however, were less likely to cause antibiotic resistance than the other two studied strategies, according to the researchers.
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