Diagnosis and treatment of community-acquired pneumonia.
Patients with community-acquired pneumonia often present with cough, fever, chills, fatigue, dyspnea, rigors, and pleuritic chest pain. When a patient presents with suspected community-acquired pneumonia, the physician should first assess the need for hospitalization using a mortality prediction tool, such as the Pneumonia Severity Index, combined with clinical judgment. Consensus guidelines from several organizations recommend empiric therapy with macrolides, fluoroquinolones, or doxycycline. Patients who are hospitalized should be switched from parenteral antibiotics to oral antibiotics after their symptoms improve, they are afebrile, and they are able to tolerate oral medications. Clinical pathways are important tools to improve care and maximize cost-effectiveness in hospitalized patients.
Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, Rockford, Illinois 61107, USA. lutfiyya@uic.edu
M Nawal
MN
Lutfiyya
Eric
E
Henley
Linda F
LF
Chang
Stephanie Wessel
SW
Reyburn
D000465:Algorithms; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D006403:Hematologic Tests; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D010808:Physical Examination; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D011859:Radiography; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents