Adjunctive osteopathic manipulative treatment in the elderly hospitalized with pneumonia: a pilot study

To evaluate the benefit of osteopathic manipulative treatment in the elderly with pneumonia, the authors recruited 21 individuals older than 60 years who were hospitalized with acute pneumonia. Eleven patients were randomly assigned to the treatment group and ten to the control group. The treatment group received specific osteopathic manipulative treatment for somatic dysfunction and a standardized treatment protocol. Both groups received conventional therapy, and the attending physician was blind to group assignments. No significant difference existed between groups for age, sex, or severity of illness. Although the mean duration of leukocytosis, intravenous antibiotic treatment, and length of stay were shorter for the treatment group, these measures did not reach statistical significance. However, the mean duration of oral antibiotic use did reach statistical significance at 3.1 days for the treatment group and 0.8 day for the control group. Osteopathic manipulative treatment may reduce antibiotic use and length of stay; however, a larger study is needed to clarify this outcome.