The American Journal of Medicine (2007) 120, 783-790

CLINICAL RESEARCH STUDY

Efficacy of Short-Course Antibiotic Regimens for

Community-Acquired Pneumonia: A Meta-analysis
Jonathan Z. Li, MD,a Lisa G. Winston, MD,a,b Dan H. Moore, PhD,c Stephen Bent, MDd
a
Department of Medicine, bInfectious Diseases Division, cDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and dGeneral Internal
Medicine Section, San Francisco VA Medical Center, University of California, San Francisco.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: There is little consensus on the most appropriate duration of antibiotic treatment for community-
acquired pneumonia. The goal of this study is to systematically review randomized controlled trials comparing
short-course and extended-course antibiotic regimens for community-acquired pneumonia.
METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, and CENTRAL, and reviewed reference lists from 1980
through June 2006. Studies were included if they were randomized controlled trials that compared
short-course (7 days or less) versus extended-course (⬎7 days) antibiotic monotherapy for community-
acquired pneumonia in adults. The primary outcome measure was failure to achieve clinical improvement.
RESULTS: We found 15 randomized controlled trials matching our inclusion and exclusion criteria
comprising 2796 total subjects. Short-course regimens primarily studied the use of azithromycin (n ⫽ 10),
but trials examining beta-lactams (n ⫽ 2), fluoroquinolones (n ⫽ 2), and ketolides (n ⫽ 1) were found as
well. Of the extended-course regimens, 3 studies utilized the same antibiotic, whereas 9 involved an
antibiotic of the same class. Overall, there was no difference in the risk of clinical failure between the
short-course and extended-course regimens (0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.78-1.02). In addition,
there were no differences in the risk of mortality (0.81, 95% CI, 0.46-1.43) or bacteriologic eradication
(1.11, 95% CI, 0.76-1.62). In subgroup analyses, there was a trend toward favorable clinical efficacy for
the short-course regimens in all antibiotic classes (range of relative risk, 0.88-0.94).
CONCLUSIONS: The available studies suggest that adults with mild to moderate community-acquired
pneumonia can be safely and effectively treated with an antibiotic regimen of 7 days or less. Reduction in
patient exposure to antibiotics may limit the increasing rates of antimicrobial drug resistance, decrease cost,
and improve patient adherence and tolerability. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

KEYWORDS: Antibiotics; Community-acquired pneumonia; Pneumonia; Short-course

Community-acquired pneumonia is one of the leading moniae, especially in bacteremic and hospitalized patients.
causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. In the Other common causes of community-acquired pneumonia
United States, an estimated 2-3 million cases of community- include Haemophilus influenzae and the “atypical” patho-
acquired pneumonia occur annually, resulting in an esti- gens, which include Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamy-
mated 10 million physician visits and 600,000 hospitaliza- dophila pneumoniae, and Legionella pneumophilia. The
tions, with a total annual cost of over $20 billion.1-3 The atypical organisms cannot be differentiated from other eti-
most commonly isolated pathogen is Streptococcus pneu- ologies on the basis of clinical symptoms or radiographic
appearance and are infrequently isolated in clinical practice.
The data in this article were presented in part at the 46th Annual Overall, the bacteriologic etiology of community-acquired
Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, San pneumonia is undetermined in 40%-60% of clinical studies
Francisco, CA, September 27-30, 2006 (Session 162, Paper L-1458). and in the vast majority of cases in actual practice.1,2,4-7
Requests for reprints should be addressed to Jonathan Z. Li, MD,
Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, Box Without adequate clinical trials, the empiric treatment of
0862, 5H22, San Francisco, CA 94143-0862. community-acquired pneumonia continues to be challeng-
E-mail address: [email protected] ing, with a myriad of recommendations on the length of

0002-9343/$ -see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2007.04.023
784 The American Journal of Medicine, Vol 120, No 9, September 2007

treatment and types of antibiotics.1,3,8-12 The drawbacks of viewers (JL and LW) independently evaluated full text
antibiotic overuse are becoming increasingly apparent and articles to determine eligibility for inclusion into the study
include growing antibiotic resistance, rising costs, and po- and independently extracted data from relevant trials. Dis-
tentially severe side effects such as Clostridium difficile crepancies between the reviewers were resolved through
infections. Recent studies have already begun to question discussion.
the need for additional antimicro-
bial agents to cover atypical or- Outcomes
ganisms in community-acquired The primary outcome measure
CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
pneumonia.6,13 Another method to was failure to achieve clinical im-
decrease antibiotic usage is to de- ● Adults with mild-moderate community- provement or cure. Secondary out-
crease the length of antibiotic acquired pneumonia can be effectively comes were mortality, bacterio-
treatment. Currently, a range of treated with an antibiotic regimen of 7 logic failure, and adverse events.
recommendations can be found re- The outcome measures and time
days or less.
garding the duration of treatment, to outcome assessment were de-
most encompassing a treatment ● This result is consistent among the 4 an- fined by each individual study.
course of 5-14 days.1,7-9,14 Several tibiotic classes studied (macrolide, fluoro- Clinical failure was determined by
recent studies have suggested the quinolone, beta-lactam, and ketolide). the investigators of each study
clinical effectiveness and bene- generally based on clinical symp-
fits of shorter duration antimicro- ● There is a trend toward decreased ad-
toms and the need for additional
bial therapy for lower-respiratory verse events with antibiotic regimens of antibiotics. The time to outcome
tract infections and community- 7 days or less. assessment was generally between
acquired pneumonia.15-20 In order 10 and 42 days. The quality of
to further define the appropriate each study was evaluated using
length of antibiotic treatment for the Jadad scoring system as previ-
community-acquired pneumonia, we performed a meta- ously described, which takes into account allocation gener-
analysis of randomized-controlled trials comparing short- ation, concealment, and dropouts.21
course (ⱕ7-day) versus extended-course (⬎7-day) anti-
biotic regimens.
Statistical Analysis
For the primary data analysis, we used the intention-to-treat
METHODS or modified intention-to-treat (participants who were ran-
Search Strategy domized and received at least one dose of study medication)
We used the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, principle. In studies that only reported a per-protocol anal-
Medline, and Embase to find publications from 1980 ysis, we conservatively assumed that all dropouts were
through June 2006. In the Cochrane database, the record treatment failures for inclusion in the intention-to-treat anal-
title was searched for the keyword “pneumonia.” Articles in ysis. Clinical success using the per-protocol patient popu-
Medline and Embase were found by searching for clinical lation also was evaluated. Stata version 9.0 (StataCorp LP,
studies or trials with the word “pneumonia” in the title and College Station, Tex) was employed to calculate the relative
without the following keywords in the title: “pneumocys- risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using the
tis,” “aspiration,” “aspirate,” “nosocomial,” “ventilator,” fixed-effects model (a random-effects model also was used
“ventilation,” “ventilated,” “pediatric,” “paediatric,” “child,” and was found to not significantly alter the results). To test
“childhood,” and “children.” In addition, we reviewed the for publication bias, we used the Stata program metabias,
reference lists from review articles and the identified clini- which performs the Begg’s and Egger’s regression asym-
cal trials, as well as medication inserts and drug manufac- metry test for publication bias. To test for heterogeneity, we
turer websites to identify other relevant studies. No lan- calculated a chi-squared statistic that is the sum of the
guage restrictions were applied during the search process. squared differences between each study and the summary
mean divided by the variance (StataCorp LP).
Study Selection
Our inclusion criteria required studies to be randomized RESULTS
controlled trials in adults (age ⱖ12 years) that compared the
clinical efficacy of a short-course (7 days or less) antibiotic Description of Studies
monotherapy regimen versus an extended course (⬎7 days) Our search strategy identified more than 3700 potential
regimen. All patients had radiographically confirmed pneu- references (Figure 1). Most studies were excluded due to the
monia. Noncomparative and nonrandomized studies were fact that they were not randomized controlled trials or did
excluded, as were trials with a large proportion of patients not compare a short-course versus an extended-course an-
with bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ex- tibiotic regimen. Fifteen studies met our inclusion and ex-
acerbations, or health-care-associated pneumonias. Two re- clusion criteria and were included in this meta-analysis
Li et al Short-Course Antibiotics for CAP 785

rolide, although the comparative drug was Cefaclor in one

study25 and in another, multiple comparative antibiotics
were used.28 Other short-course regimens studied included
fluoroquinolones (n ⫽ 2),33,34 beta-lactams (n ⫽ 2),35,36 and
a ketolide (n ⫽ 1).37 The majority of extended-course anti-
biotic regimens involved macrolide antibiotics (n ⫽ 9), but
also examined the beta-lactam (n ⫽ 4) and fluoroquinolone
(n ⫽ 1) antibiotic classes.
Although the majority of studies examined short-course
macrolide antibiotics, the distribution of subjects was more
evenly distributed among the different antibiotic classes. Of
the 2796 total participants, 39% were in studies examining
short courses of macrolide antibiotics, 30% in the fluoro-
quinolone trials, 20% in the ketolide study, and 11% in the
studies examining short-course beta-lactam antibiotics.
Both inpatients and outpatients were represented, with 2
studies performed exclusively in outpatients,27,28 4 studies
with only inpatients,23,29,30,35 and 6 studies evaluating
Figure 1 Study flow diagram. both inpatients and outpatients26,31-34,37 (2 studies did not
specify).24,25
All studies identified participants by a combination of
(Table 1). These studies were published between 1990 and clinical symptoms and radiographic features. Several stud-
2004 and comprised a total of 2796 subjects. Ten studies ies had more targeted inclusion criteria. Bohte et al divided
enrolled more than 100 participants (range, 42-528 sub- their cohort into patients suspected to have pneumococcal
jects). The mean age of the participants ranged from 40 to and nonpneumococcal pneumonia based on clinical and
64 years. All of the trials included only patients with mild- microbiological criteria.23 The pneumococcal subgroup was
moderate community-acquired pneumonia. Eight of the not included in this analysis, as the duration of antibiotic use
studies exclusively used oral antibiotics and excluded those was not specified for the comparison medication. In 2 stud-
with more severe disease requiring intravenous antibiotics. ies, both involving azithromycin compared with another
The other trials excluded patients with signs of clinical macrolide, the patient population was restricted to those
decompensation (eg, patients requiring intensive care unit deemed to have “atypical pneumonia” by either clinical/
stay, Pneumonia Severity Index ⬎130).22 In the 10 studies radiographic criteria or through serologic antibody ti-
examining the efficacy of short-course azithromycin,23-32 ters.30,31 Finally, in the study by Leophonte et al comparing
6 trials used 3-day regimens,26-30,32 whereas 4 trials used gemifloxacin and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, the partici-
5-day regimens.23-25,31 Most compared it with another mac- pants were limited to those who were thought to have likely

Table 1 Characteristics of Included Studies

Time to Outcome
Study Short-Course Extended-Course n Mean Age* Assessment
Bohte et al, 199523 Azithromycin, 5 d Erythromycin, 10 d 42 61 Within 21 days of discharge
Brion et al, 199024 Azithromycin, 5 d Josamycin, 10 d 97 53 30 days
Dunbar et al, 200333 Levofloxacin, 5 d Levofloxacin, 10 d 528 54 7-14 days after last dose of
antibiotic
Kinasewitz & Wood, 199125 Azithromycin, 5 d Cefaclor, 10 d 119 42 10-13 days
Kobayashi et al, 199526 Azithromycin, 3 d Clarithromycin, 14 d 163 Not reported 14 days
Leophonte et al, 200434 Gemifloxacin, 7 d Amoxicillin/clav, 10 d 320 54 24-30 days
Leophonte et al, 200235 Ceftriaxone, 5 d Ceftriaxone, 10 d 244 64 10 days
O’Doherty & Muller, 199827 Azithromycin, 3 d Clarithromycin, 10 d 203 51 12-16 days
Rahav et al, 200428 Azithromycin, 3 d Multiple abx, 10 d 108 50 10-14 days
Rizzato et al, 199529 Azithromycin, 3 d Clarithromycin, 10 d 40 46 30 days
Schonwald et al, 199430 Azithromycin, 3 d Roxithromycin, 10 d 150 40 14 days
Schonwald et al, 199031 Azithromycin, 5 d Erythromycin, 10 d 101 Not reported 15-21 days
Siegel et al, 199936 Cefuroxime, 7 d Cefuroxime, 10 d 52 61 42 days
Sopena et al, 200432 Azithromycin, 3 d Clarithromycin, 10 d 70 43 25-30 days
Tellier et al, 200437 Telithromycin, 5 or 7 d Clarithromycin, 10 d 559 42 17-21 days
*Mean age (years) is estimated to be the average age of the 2 arms if reported separately.
786 The American Journal of Medicine, Vol 120, No 9, September 2007

Table 2 Number of Patients with Community-Acquired Pneumonia Failing to Improve Clinically by Intention-to-Treat (ITT) and
Per-Protocol (PP) Analysis

ITT Analysis n/N PP Analysis n/N Risk Ratios

Study Short-Course Extended-Course Short-Course Extended-Course ITT (95% CI) PP (95% CI)
23
Bohte et al, 1995 5/20 6/22 4/19 5/21 0.92 (0.33-2.54) 0.88 (0.28-2.82)
Brion et al, 199024 13/50 9/47 9/46 5/43 1.36 (0.64-2.88) 1.68 (0.61-4.62)
Dunbar et al, 200333 73/256 97/272 15/198 17/192 0.80 (0.62-1.03) 0.86 (0.44-1.66)
Kinasewitz & Wood, 199125 23/53 27/66 2/32 0/39 1.06 (0.70-1.62) 6.06 (0.30-121.9)
Kobayashi et al, 199526 23/81 25/82 1/59 6/63 0.93 (0.58-1.50) 0.18 (0.02-1.43)
Leophonte et al, 200434 38/167 32/153 13/115 14/113 1.09 (0.72-1.65) 0.91 (0.45-1.85)
Leophonte et al, 200235 32/125 34/119 17/94 16/92 0.90 (0.59-1.35) 1.04 (0.56-1.93)
O’Doherty & Muller, 199827 18/101 18/102 5/88 4/88 1.01 (0.56-1.83) 1.25 (0.35-4.50)
Rahav et al, 200428 1/62 6/46 1/62 6/46 0.12 (0.02-0.99) 0.12 (0.02-0.99)
Rizzato et al, 199529 1/20 3/20 1/20 2/19 0.33 (0.04-2.94) 0.47 (0.05-4.82)
Schonwald et al, 199430 2/90 10/60 1/89 3/53 0.13 (0.03-0.59) 0.20 (0.02-1.86)
Schonwald et al, 199031 18/57 12/44 0/39 0/32 1.16 (0.63-2.14)
Siegel et al, 199936 6/27 5/25 3/24 2/22 1.11 (0.39-3.19) 1.37 (0.25-7.47)
Sopena et al, 200432 6/34 8/36 3/31 4/32 0.79 (0.31-2.05) 0.77 (0.19-3.18)
Tellier et al, 200437 67/378 34/181 35/320 12/146 0.94 (0.65-1.37) 1.33 (0.71-2.49)
Summary RR 0.89 (0.78-1.02) 0.94 (0.72-1.22)
*Relative risk unable to be calculated for the PP population for Schonwald et al. due to the lack of patients who failed to improve in both arms of
the study.

pneumococcal pneumonia based on clinical findings or ex- differences in outcome were found in those participants
amination of a respiratory sample.34 taking short-course macrolides (10 studies: RR 0.88, 95%
CI, 0.71-1.09), fluoroquinolones (2 studies: RR 0.88, 95%
Risk of Clinical Failure CI, 0.71-1.08), or beta-lactam antibiotics (2 studies: RR
The risk of clinical failure was the primary outcome mea- 0.92, 95% CI, 0.63-1.36). A subgroup analysis of studies
sure for all studies. No significant differences were found using 3-day regimens of azithromycin showed a significant
between the risk of clinical failure in the short-course and reduction in clinical failures with the fixed-effects model (6
extended-course arms (Table 2, Figure 2) either by inten- studies: RR 0.70, 95% CI, 0.51-0.96), but not the random-
tion-to-treat (RR 0.89, 95% CI, 0.78-1.02) or by per-proto- effects model (6 studies: RR0.61, 95% CI, 0.34-1.10). The
col analysis (RR 0.94, 95% CI, 0.72-1.22). No significant reported rate of clinical failure by per-protocol analysis was

Figure 2 Relative risk of clinical failure with short-course versus extended course antibiotic regimens.
Li et al Short-Course Antibiotics for CAP 787

Figure 3 Relative risk of mortality with short-course versus extended-course antibiotic regimens. (The relative risk of mortality could not
be calculated in 7 studies due to the lack of deaths in both arms).

8.9% for participants in the short-course antibiotic arm and reporting of dropouts. This was done through the Jadad
9.6% in the extended-course antibiotic arm. score as previously described.21 Eight studies were found to
be of relatively high quality (Jadad score ⱖ3). A subgroup
Secondary Outcome Measures analysis including only the high quality studies found no
The overall mortality rate was 1.7%, with 7 studies report- significant differences in the risk of clinical failure with the
ing no deaths. Among those studies with at least one death, use of short-course antibiotic regimens (RR 0.92, 95% CI,
the mortality rates ranged from 0.9% to 6.7%. Among the 0.80-1.07).
analyzable studies, no significant differences were found in
the risk of mortality between the 2 arms (Figure 3; RR 0.81, DISCUSSION
95% CI, 0.46-1.43). Bacteriologic failure was reported in 7 In this meta-analysis, we found no significant differences
studies and was generally defined as persistently positive between short-course and extended-course antibiotic regi-
cultures or an absence of culture/serologic testing results in mens for the treatment of mild to moderate community-
those who had clinical failure. Prolonged antibiotic course acquired pneumonia with respect to clinical success, mor-
was not associated with significantly improved bacterio- tality, bacteriologic success, and adverse events. The results
logic response (RR 1.09, 95% CI, 0.75-1.58). Adverse were consistent across a wide range of analyses, including
events were defined as clinical symptoms or laboratory both the intention-to-treat and per-protocol patient popula-
abnormalities deemed likely to be related to medication use tions, high-quality studies, and individual antibiotic classes.
by the investigators. There was a wide range in the reported Both outpatients and inpatients were included, and 4 of the
rates of adverse events (2.3%-22.4%), with a mean of antibiotic classes most commonly used for community-ac-
14.1%. No significant differences in the risk of adverse quired pneumonia (macrolide, fluoroquinolone, beta-lac-
events were found between the arms (RR 0.86, 95% CI, tam, and ketolide) were represented in this meta-analysis. In
0.71-1.04). No heterogeneity was found for the intention- addition, the studies taken together included subjects with a
to-treat analysis of clinical failure (P ⫽ .36), mortality wide mean age range.
(P ⫽ 1.0), bacteriologic eradication (P ⫽ .60), or for any The optimal length of treatment for community-acquired
subgroup analysis (P ⬎.1 for all comparisons). Tests for pneumonia has been unclear, with current guidelines sug-
publication bias found no evidence of publication bias for gesting a regimen that varies from 5 to 14 days.5,7,8,14,38,39
any of the summary measures (P ⬎.1 for all comparisons). In addition, the most recent Infectious Diseases Society of
Unless noted above, analysis by the random effects model America and American Thoracic Society guidelines specif-
resulted in no significant differences among the results. ically recommend treatment until 72 hours after the patient
becomes afebrile and until clinically stable.1,8,9 Several ar-
Methodologic Quality of Studies guments have already been put forth for the use of shorter
The quality of the studies was evaluated on the basis of duration of treatment for pneumonia. Studies in children
adequate allocation randomization, concealment, and the have demonstrated the equivalent efficacy of 3 days versus
788 The American Journal of Medicine, Vol 120, No 9, September 2007

5 days of antibiotic treatment for pneumonia.40,41 An older in patients who are previously healthy and have no risk
study of community-acquired pneumonia patients in Nigeria factors for drug-resistant S. pneumoniae.8 It also is impor-
suggested that patients could be successfully treated with as tant to note that telithromycin has been linked to a number
little as 2.5 days of antibiotic therapy.42 In the treatment of of cases of hepatotoxicity and caution should be advised
ventilator-associated pneumonia, 8 days of antibiotic treat- when prescribing this antibiotic.58,59
ment was found to be as efficacious as 15 days of treatment One important limitation of this study is the under-
in most cases.43 In addition, a study of patients with noso- representation of some classes of antibiotics. For example,
comial pneumonia found, using serial bronchoscopy, that in no study of doxycycline was found that matched the inclu-
only 6% of cases were initially isolated microbes not erad- sion criteria. In addition, only 1 ketolide, 2 beta-lactam, and
icated within just 3 days of treatment.44 One reason that 2 fluoroquinolone studies were found. However, because
azithromycin has been so frequently studied in short-course these studies were larger, the overall number of subjects
regimens is its pharmacokinetic properties that allow the receiving each class of antibiotic was more evenly distrib-
drug to have high tissue concentrations for 3-4 days after uted. Although 10 of 15 studies examined the efficacy of
completion of therapy.15,45 It is interesting to note that in 6 azithromycin, these studies involved only 39% of the total
of 10 azithromycin trials included here, azithromycin was number of participants. The 2 fluoroquinolone trials en-
given for only 3 days, which would suggest that 1 week of rolled 848 participants, or 30% of the total number, whereas
an antibiotic without this type of prolonged activity should the one ketolide study alone had 559 participants. Another
be sufficient. Finally, a recent multi-centered clinical trial in limitation is that most trials included only mild-moderate
the Netherlands found that two thirds of patients with com- pneumonia, with elderly patients generally under-repre-
munity-acquired pneumonia had improved clinically after sented in the study populations. Even in the inpatient stud-
just 3 days of treatment with amoxicillin. In those patients ies, respiratory failure and septic shock were common ex-
who had substantially improved, there was no benefit in clusion criteria. Therefore, although the results of this meta-
taking additional antibiotics.46 analysis should be generalizable to most adults, they cannot
The avoidance of extended-course antibiotic regimens be extrapolated to those with severe community-acquired
pneumonia. Finally, as with all recommendations, individ-
may have many important benefits. Increasing rates of an-
ual response to treatment should be taken into account. As
timicrobial resistance has become a major concern for S.
discussed in the recent study by el Moussaoui et al,46 short
pneumoniae and other organisms causing community-ac-
courses of treatment are probably most appropriate in pa-
quired pneumonia.4,38,47,48 It is clear that one of the major
tients who have significantly improved with initial therapy.
causes is the frequency and length of antibiotic use, and
In summary, the available data suggest that adults with
subsequent selective pressures for resistance.16,43,49,50 The
mild-moderate community-acquired pneumonia can be
use of shorter course antibiotic regimens may help limit the
safely and effectively treated with an antibiotic regimen of
spread of drug-resistant bacteria. Patient compliance is an-
7 days or less. Given the potential cost savings and impli-
other factor to consider, as several studies have shown
cations in reducing antimicrobial drug resistance, larger
improved patient adherence with regimens of ⬍7 days com- studies should be performed confirming these results across
pared with longer courses.50-52 Finally, shorter courses of antibiotic classes.
antibiotics can potentially reduce the risk of medication side
effects. In this study, there was a trend toward lower adverse
events with the short-course regimen.
The issue of antibiotic resistance has become a grave ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
concern, especially with the well-documented increase in We thank Gloria Won for her invaluable advice on the
macrolide-resistant S. pneumoniae.8,53 S. pneumoniae resis- Embase and Medline literature searches. We are grateful for
tance to fluoroquinolones also has been documented world- the help Yoshio Hall and Delphine Tuot provided in trans-
wide, but resistance to respiratory fluoroquinolones (levo- lating articles.
floxacin, moxifloxacin, and gemifloxacin) is still relatively
rare in the United States.53-57 Although there was a trend References
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