Antibiotics and reduced risk of COPD re-exacerbations

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a progressive disease of the airways in which respiratory symptoms aggravate transitorily during disease exacerbations. The treatment of the disease in its stable state is the most important factor in reducing related morbidity, but exacerbation therapy might also impact on subsequent re-exacerbation. The effects of adding antibiotics to oral corticosteroids at the first exacerbation are analyzed in the discussed paper and it is demonstrated that such a regimen might be associated with a lower risk of re-exacerbation and with a potential reduction of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease morbidity and mortality. However, the analysis is only based on data at primary care level and, hence, should be interpreted with caution for several reasons, discussed in the paper. Furthermore, such results can represent a useful starting point for a subsequent study on this aspect, which is very important for clinical practice and surprisingly less investigated.