Elderly benefit from early pneumonia therapy

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Elderly benefit from early pneumonia therapy

Last Updated: 2004-03-22 16:00:50 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older patients with community-acquired

pneumonia fare much better when antibiotics are given within four hours

of arrival at the hospital, new research suggests.

Compared with more delayed therapy, antibiotic treatment within four

hours of hospital arrival was linked to a 15 percent reduction in the

risk of in-hospital and 30-day mortality. The in-hospital and 30-day

mortality rates for patients treated early were 6.8 percent and 11.6

percent, respectively.

The findings are based on a study of 18,209 Medicare patients who were

hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia between July 1998 and

March 1999. The analysis focused on 13,771 of the patients who had not

received antibiotics as outpatients.

The findings are reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine by Dr.

M. Houck, from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in

Seattle, and colleagues.

Another benefit of early treatment was shorter length of stay. Patients

treated within four hours were less likely than others to have a

hospital stay that exceeded five days. On average, the length of stay

for patients treated early was 0.4 days shorter than that of their peers

with more delayed treatment.

In contrast with the other positive findings, the researchers found no

evidence that antibiotic timing influenced readmission rates.

The finding that 60 percent of patients received antibiotic therapy

within four hours of arrival suggests that it is a feasible treatment

strategy. But at certain centers, notably large metropolitan hospitals,

this goal may be more difficult to achieve than at others, the

investigators point out.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, March 22, 2004.

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