PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Alejandro Chirino AU - Paula Peyrani AU - Tim Wiemken AU - Carlos Luna AU - Francesco Blasi AU - Julio Ramirez AU - Stefano Aliberti TI - Shortening duration of antibiotic therapy according to clinical stability in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) DP - 2014 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - 4642 VI - 44 IP - Suppl 58 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/4642.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/4642.full SO - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44 AB - Recent guidelines suggest a short duration of antibiotic therapy in responding patients with CAP. In order to test this expert opinion, a secondary analysis of the CAPO database from Jan. 2007 to June 2013 was performed, including hospitalized patients with CAP who reached clinical stability within 5 days after admission. Two groups of patients were identified: those who were treated with antibiotic therapy for a total duration of 5 days or less (short-course therapy, SCT Group) vs. more than 5 days (long-course therapy, LCT Group). Re-hospitalization and mortality at 30 days after discharge were the study outcomes. A total of 1,849 patients were enrolled (58% males; median age: 65 years): 179 (10%) in the STC and 1,670 (90%) in the LTC group. The median duration of antibiotic therapy was of 5 days in the STC and 10 days in the LTC group, p<0.001.[1] No patient died up to 30 days after discharge in the SCT group, while 8 patients (0.7%) died in the LCT group, p=0.488. A total of 13 (11%) re-hospitalizations were detected at 30 days after discharge in the SCT group vs. 132 (11%) in the LCT group, p=0.879. Once adjusted for several confounders, a short duration of antibiotic therapy (5 days) was not associated to the combined adverse outcome of either mortality or re-hospitalization (OR: 1.04; 95% CI: 0.54-1.99; p=0.912). These results provide new clinical evidence supporting guidelines recommendations to tail duration of antibiotic therapy on patient's clinical response.