TY - JOUR
T1 - Health care-associated pneumonia
T2 - An evidence-based review
AU - Attridge, Russell T.
AU - Frei, Christopher R.
N1 - Funding Information:
Conflict of Interest: Dr. Attridge does not have any potential conflicts of interest to disclose. Dr. Frei is supported by a National Institutes of Health Grant KL2 RR025766 and research funds from Ortho-McNeil Janssen.
Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2011/8
Y1 - 2011/8
N2 - Health care-associated pneumonia is a relatively new classification of pneumonia that includes community-dwelling pneumonia patients having contact with the health care system. Current data indicate that health care-associated pneumonia patients present with more severe disease, are more likely to be infected with drug-resistant pathogens, and suffer increased mortality compared with community-acquired pneumonia patients. Guidelines recommend that these patients receive empiric antibiotics similar to those recommended for nosocomial pneumonia; however, it is not currently known if outcomes are improved when health care-associated pneumonia patients are treated with these therapies. In addition, the individual health care-associated pneumonia risk factors are based on limited data and are a poor predictor of patients likely to be infected with drug-resistant pathogens. Many questions remain on how to most appropriately care for this growing group of pneumonia patients. This review is an evidence-based discussion of current health care-associated pneumonia data, the individual health care-associated pneumonia risk factors, and limitations and additional considerations for the health care-associated pneumonia classification system.
AB - Health care-associated pneumonia is a relatively new classification of pneumonia that includes community-dwelling pneumonia patients having contact with the health care system. Current data indicate that health care-associated pneumonia patients present with more severe disease, are more likely to be infected with drug-resistant pathogens, and suffer increased mortality compared with community-acquired pneumonia patients. Guidelines recommend that these patients receive empiric antibiotics similar to those recommended for nosocomial pneumonia; however, it is not currently known if outcomes are improved when health care-associated pneumonia patients are treated with these therapies. In addition, the individual health care-associated pneumonia risk factors are based on limited data and are a poor predictor of patients likely to be infected with drug-resistant pathogens. Many questions remain on how to most appropriately care for this growing group of pneumonia patients. This review is an evidence-based discussion of current health care-associated pneumonia data, the individual health care-associated pneumonia risk factors, and limitations and additional considerations for the health care-associated pneumonia classification system.
KW - Guideline-concordant antibiotic therapy
KW - Multidrug-resistant
KW - Pneumonia
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U2 - 10.1016/j.amjmed.2011.01.023
DO - 10.1016/j.amjmed.2011.01.023
M3 - Review article
C2 - 21663884
AN - SCOPUS:79960841550
VL - 124
SP - 689
EP - 697
JO - American Journal of Medicine
JF - American Journal of Medicine
SN - 0002-9343
IS - 8
ER -