Current treatment of community-acquired pneumonia

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Management decisions regarding site of care, extent of assessment and level of treatment are based primarily on disease severity (outpatient, inpatient and ICU admission). Despite the developments in antibiotic therapy, CAP is still the most common infectious cause of death.

There are several challenges with the management of CAP, from the accurate diagnosis, decisions about place of therapy and the choice of appropriate antibiotics. An extensive literature review of manuscripts, in PubMed, published in the past 10 years has been performed, using combinations of words and terms appropriate to the concepts of CAP, treatment, guidelines and corticoids. Some empirical antimicrobial regimens, such as macrolides, are still being debated; some new antibiotics and adjunctive therapies (corticoids) have recently been tested. This is a review of current recommended antimicrobials regimens, novel approaches and adjunctive drugs for the treatment of CAP.

Effective management of CAP requires risk stratification of patients by severity and proper place of therapy. Additional therapeutic interventions along with antibiotics may help to improve outcome in patients with CAP, especially in severe CAP.