A Retrospective Observational Evaluation on Duration of Therapy to Guideline Recommendations in the Treatment of Pediatric Community Acquired Pneumonia

Document Type

Conference Proceeding - Restricted Access

Publication Date

5-9-2025

Abstract

Pneumonia is an acute infection of pulmonary parenchyma caused by bacteria, viruses, or other pathogens that trigger an immune response and cause inflammation. For children under 5 years of age, over 700,000 per year or around 2,000 per day die from pneumonia. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines for the management of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) in infants and children published in 2011 report duration of therapy at 10 days. Since publication of the guideline over 10 years ago, numerous adult and pediatric literature support shorter therapy durations of at least 5 days in uncomplicated CAP. This study aims to evaluate duration of therapy in pediatric patients being treated for uncomplicated CAP at Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital.

Inclusion criteria are patients with a discharge diagnosis of uncomplicated CAP who were admitted inpatient and received antibiotics. Exclusion criteria include patients under 3 months or over 18 years of age, gift of life recipients, those with cystic fibrosis, a tracheostomy, or admitted to the pediatric hematology-oncology service. The primary endpoint is a duration of therapy of at least 5 days per pediatric CAP guidelines. Secondary endpoints include hospital length of stay, intensive care length of stay, time to transition from IV to PO therapy, and 30-day readmission rates. Descriptive statistics will be presented as mean ± standard deviation and median ± interquartile ranges.

Results of the study are still pending.

The results of this study will help to target stewardship intervention strategies and metrics to track for ensuring optimal antibiotics or duration of therapy recommendations in pediatric patients. Final conclusions will be presented at Research Day pending study results.

Comments

2025 Research Day Corewell Health West, Grand Rapids, MI, May 9, 2025. Abstract 1733

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