Short treatment duration for community-acquired pneumonia

Purpose of reviewLower respiratory tract infections are one of the most common indications for antibiotic use in community and hospital settings. Usual guidelines for adults with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) recommend 5-7 days of antibiotic treatment. In daily practice, physicians often prescribe 9-10 days of antibiotic treatment. Among available strategies to decrease antibiotic use, possibly preventing the emergence of bacterial resistance, reducing treatment durations is the safest and the most acceptable to clinicians. We aim to review data evaluating the efficacy of short antibiotic duration in adult CAP and which criteria can help clinicians to reduce antibiotic treatment.Recent findingsSeveral studies and meta-analyses demonstrated that the treatment duration of 7 days or less was sufficient for CAP. Two trials found that 3-day treatments were effective, even in hospitalized CAP.To customize and shorten duration, clinical and biological criteria have been studied and reflect patient's response. Indeed, stability criteria were recently shown to be effective to discontinue antibiotic treatment. Procalcitonin was also studied but never compared with clinical criteria.Treatment duration for CAP is still under debate, but several studies support short durations. Clinical criteria could be possibly used to discontinue antibiotic treatment.

Automated summary

Lower respiratory tract infections are a common reason for antibiotic use. Current guidelines recommend 5-7 days of antibiotic treatment for adults with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), but physicians often prescribe longer durations. Shortening antibiotic treatment is a safe and acceptable strategy to reduce antibiotic use and prevent bacterial resistance. This review aims to evaluate the efficacy of short antibiotic duration in adult CAP and identify criteria to guide clinicians in reducing treatment duration.