[ad_1]
According to a national study conducted by Todd Florin, MD, MSCE, of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Hospital in Chicago, preschool children with community acquired pneumonia often undergo testing and treatment unnecessary in outpatient clinics and emergency services. Although most cases of community-acquired pneumonia in young children are caused by viruses, for which antibiotics provide no benefit, antibiotics have been prescribed in almost 74% of outpatient clinics. Chest X-rays were performed in 43% of cases, despite recommendations against routine use in young children with outpatient pneumonia. The results were published in the Journal of the Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.
It is worrying that so many young children with community-acquired pneumonia receive unnecessary antibiotics. In addition to challenging clinical evidence and recommendations, overconsumption of antibiotics contributes to antibiotic resistance, which threatens the future availability of effective treatments for bacterial infections, as well as causing side effects badociated with antibiotic resistance. antibiotics ranging from mild to potentially fatal.
Dr. Florin, who directs the Grainger Initiative in pediatric emergency medicine research at Lurie Children's and is an badociate professor of pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
Community-acquired pneumonia is one of the most common infections in children. It represents approximately 1.5 million health care visits each year in the United States.
In 2011, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the Infectious Diseases Society of America released clinical guidelines for community-acquired pneumonia. These groups advise against routine chest x-ray, complete blood counts and blood cultures, and routine antibiotics for preschool children treated as outpatients.
To evaluate the effect of this guideline, Dr. Florin and colleagues reviewed national data representing approximately 6.3 million visits to outpatient clinics and emergency services in 2008-2015. children 1-6 years old with community acquired pneumonia. They found that the high use of non-recommended diagnostic tests and antibiotics persisted throughout the study and that the 2011 guidelines had no impact on practice.
"Targeted quality improvement efforts are needed to increase adherence to recommendations to ensure that these children receive appropriate and evidence-based care," said Dr. Florin. "In particular we need to focus on reducing the overuse of antibiotics, which is of utmost importance."
Source:
Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Journal reference:
Florin, T.A. et al. (2019) Diagnostic Tests and Antibiotic Use in Young Children with Community-acquired Pneumonia in the United States, 2008-2015. Journal of the Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. doi.org/10.1093/jpids/piz026.
[ad_2]
Source link
