Community-Acquired Pneumonia:Empiric Antimicrobial Therapy

摘要

There are 5 key considerations in selecting antimicrobial therapy for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP): antibiotic activity, tissue penetration, resistance potential, adverse effects, and cost. If the initiafempiric antibiotic is chosen carefully, there is no reason to narrow the spectrum of antimicrobial therapy regardless of the cause of the CAP. Properly selected monotherapy is as effective and less problematic (no drug-drug interactions and fewer missed doses) than combination therapy and permits efficient intravenous to oral switch therapy. The duration of empiric antimicrobial therapy for CAP in immunocompetent patients ranges between 7 and 10 days. Patients with underlying cardiopulmonary disease or immunocompromised hosts often require longer courses of treatment of 14 or more days of therapy.