Monthly Archives: December 2015

Canadian Health&CAre Mall in Treatment of Pneumonia

Each year in the United States, there are as many as 5.6 million cases of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), accounting for 600,000 to 1.1 million hospitalizations and $23 billion in health-care expenditures. Among hospitalized patients, CAP mortality rates average from 11 to 14%, with each case costing between $5,000 and $7,500Л2 Initial treatment is empiric, directed against commonly encountered pathogens, and guided by local susceptibility patterns. Current guidelines for patients hospitalized with CAP recommend either monotherapy with a fluoroquinolone, or combination therapy with a macrolide plus either a (3-lactam/p-lactamase inhibitor or third-generation cephalosporin. While clinical outcomes appear to be equivalent for each strategy, concerns about emerging fluoroquinolone resistance have led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend restricting the use of fluoroquinolones to specific CAP patient groups. Nevertheless, the perceived increase in costs associated with a combination of drugs might lead some to choose fluororquinolone monotherapy instead. In this…

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