A Prospective Study of Inpatients to Determine Microbial Etiology and Therapeutic Outcome of Antibiotics for Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Pakistan

Introduction: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is among the common diseases that causes illness and death world-wide. Limited data is available for the treatment of patients with CAP and/or medical outcome of CAP patients in Pakistan. This cross-sectional and prospective study was done to determine etiology of CAP patients and to evaluate the therapeutic effects of antibiotics commonly used in treating CAP patients in two different inner-city hospitals, Pakistan. Methods: The study was conducted on 200 hospitalized patients presenting clinical and radiographic evidences of CAP. The patients were assessed for the causative pathogen and their prescriptions were analyzed for the management and treatment of CAP and associated symptoms of pneumonia. Finally the medical outcomes were evaluated. Results: On establishing the microbial etiology of pneumonia among different CAP causing pathogens, K. pneumoniae was found to be the most identified causative agent (30%) followed by S. pneumoniae (23%). Majority of the patients received cephalosporin antibiotics (80%) followed by aminoglycosides (65%) and penicillins (50%) either as monotherapy or combination treatment. Therapeutic success was observed to occur in majority of the patients. The recovery of CAP patients occurred probably because they received antibiotics which are recommended by WHO and American Thoracic Society. Another reason for successful therapeutic outcome was found to be the significant patient compliance for treatment. Conclusion: There is a great need for such types of investigational studies to be conducted in developing countries which may guide the empirical therapy and help in defining proper treatment guidelines.