Systemic Corticosteroid and Antibiotic Use in Hospitalized Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease...

Effective inpatient chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation management is critical to appropriately manage health care resources. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines provide recommendations on appropriate systemic corticosteroid and antibiotic use, in select patients, for COPD exacerbation.

To determine the impact of GOLD guideline-recommended systemic corticosteroid and antibiotic therapy in the hospital setting on clinical outcomes in patients with COPD exacerbation.

This was a noninterventional, retrospective, single-center study. Adults admitted to a non-intensive care unit internal medicine service with documented COPD exacerbation were included. Two analyses were conducted evaluating systemic corticosteroid and antibiotic therapy.

A total of 220 patients were included in the systemic corticosteroid cohort. No difference in 30-day readmission rates was demonstrated for the standard (⩽200 mg prednisone equivalents [PEs] for exacerbation course) and high-dose groups (>200 mg PEs; 20.5% vs 13.1%, respectively; P = 0.15). Hospital length of stay (LOS) was significantly shorter for patients prescribed standard-dose therapy (3 days [2-4.5] vs 4 days [2-6]; P < 0.001). A total of 174 patients were included in the antibiotic cohort. For the appropriate and inappropriate antibiotic use groups, no significant differences were observed between 30-day readmission rates (15% vs 18.4%, respectively; P = 0.57) and hospital LOS (4 days [2-5] in both groups; P = 0.97). Conclusion and Relevance: Hospital LOS was shorter for patients prescribed standard-dose systemic corticosteroids; however, no differences in other clinical outcomes were found in either cohort. Use of guideline-recommended systemic corticosteroid and antibiotic therapy is recommended for hospitalized patients with COPD exacerbation.