title: Acute community-acquired pneumonia in adults: guidelines for initial antimicrobial therapy based on local evidence from a South American Working Group (ConsenSur).
abstract: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is probably one of the infections affecting ambulatory patients for which the most diverse guidelines have been written worldwide. Most guidelines agree that antimicrobial therapy should be initially tailored according to either the severity of the infection or the presence of co-morbidity and epidemiology. Nevertheless, a great variability may be noted among different countries in the selection of first choice antimicrobial agents, even for cases considered as low-risk. This may be due to the many microbial causes of CAP and specialties involved, as well as different healthcare systems which affect the availability or cost of antibiotics. However, many countries or regions adopt some of the guidelines or design their own recommendations, regardless of the local data, probably because of the scarcity of such data. A committee composed of South American infectious diseases specialists and microbiologists, with strong interest and recognized experience in CAP, were convened to establish a working group (ConsenSur) for designing a local evidence-based practice guideline for the initial management of CAP. This supplement is intended to give a practice recommendation for the initial antimicrobial treatment of CAP upon the basis of local evidence, in the hope of procuring a suitable tool for use by the different health-care providers concerned with the management of this infection in South America or in other countries where the main considerations for CAP are comparable.
authors.affiliation: Hospital San Martin, Paraná, Argentina. cbantar@arnet.com.ar
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bantar
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bavestrello
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Curcio
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jasovich
authors.forename: Rubén
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Absi
authors.forename: Homero
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bagnulo
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Famiglietti
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Labarca
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mera
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pedreira
authors.forename: Helio
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sader
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wey
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology / Q000401:mortality; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D018410:Pneumonia, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000401:mortality; D013020:South America
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents