Antimicrobial therapy for community-acquired pneumonia at “Lucía Íñiguez Landín” Surgical Clinical Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: community-acquired pneumonia is a relevant health problem. The correct choice of antimicrobial treatment constitutes a determining element in the patient's evolution.

Objective: to characterize the antimicrobial therapy applied in patients with a diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia, admitted to the geriatric service of the “Lucía Íñiguez Landín” Surgical Clinical Hospital, during 2019.

Material and methods: an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out. The universe was made up of 247 patients, who met the inclusion criteria, working with all of them. Immunosuppressed patients and those who died before 24 hours of admission were excluded.

Results: a predominance of males was found (70.8%), and of the age group between 80 and 89 years (45.3%). 65.2% of the patients were prescribed monotherapy. The average hospital stay predominated (54.2%), however, those patients under the combined therapy showed shorter hospitalization time. In monotherapy, the use of ceftriaxone predominated (17.8%); and in the combined therapy, the association of ceftriaxone and azithromycin (19.9%). Most of the patients (24.2%) had a personal medical history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma.

Conclusions: antimicrobial therapy was characterized by the use of monotherapy, with ceftriaxone as the drug of choice, both in patients with respiratory, cardiovascular or neurological comorbidities. However, the association of cephalosporins with macrolides showed a reduction in hospitalization time.