Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29987137›Full record

SynthesisAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy2018

Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Efficacy of Short-Course Antibiotic Treatments for Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Adults.

Giannoula S Tansarli, Eleftherios Mylonakis

Registry-linked trialAbstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05286918 (Antibiotic Stewardship Through CRP-guided Antibiotic Treatment for Patients With Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), which is not on this map. Cited by 44 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
44citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT05286918 nanot yet recruitingnot on this mapstarted 2022, after this paper: background citation

Antibiotic Stewardship Through CRP-guided Antibiotic Treatment for Patients With Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (AECOPD)

TypeinterventionalSponsorThe University of Hong KongRan2022 to 2026Enrolled1,184ConditionsAcute Exacerbation of COPD, Lung Diseases, Lung Diseases, Obstructive, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic ObstructiveArmsThe intervention (CRP-guided) group
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

44 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Guideline
  2. Pooled it
  3. Guideline
  4. Trial
  5. Trial
  6. Trial
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Optimal antibiotic use in the intensive care unit.Critical care (London, England) · 2025
    Review
  10. Article
  11. Review
  12. Review
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Association between in-hospital antibiotic use and long-term outcomes in critically ill patients.Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE · 2025
    Article
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Giannoula S TansarliDivision of Infectious Diseases, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Eleftherios MylonakisDivision of Infectious Diseases, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA emylonakis@lifespan.org.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The duration of therapy for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains undefined. We sought to investigate whether short-course antibiotic treatment for CAP is associated with favorable clinical outcomes in adult patients. We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and ClinicalTrials.gov for studies comparing the effectiveness and safety between treatment regimens administered for ≤6 days and ≥7 days. We defined treatment for ≤6 days as short-course treatment and treatment for ≥7 days as long-course treatment. Twenty-one clinical trials (4,861 clinically evaluable patients) were included, and 19 out of 21 trials were randomized. Clinical cure was similar between the compared groups (4,069 patients, risk ratio [RR] = 0.99 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 0.97 to 1.01]), irrespective of patient setting (RR = 0.98 [95% CI, 0.96 to 1.00] for the outpatient setting and RR = 1.00 [95% CI, 0.92 to 1.09] for the inpatient setting) or severity of pneumonia (RR = 1.05 [95% CI, 0.96 to 1.14]). Also, relapses were similar between the short- and long-course treatment groups (1,923 patients, RR = 0.67 [95% CI, 0.30 to 1.46]). Short-course treatment was associated with fewer serious adverse events (1,923 patients, RR = 0.73 [95% CI, 0.55 to 0.97]) and, importantly, resulted in lower mortality than long-course treatment (2,802 patients, RR = 0.52 [95% CI, 0.33 to 0.82]). In CAP, short-course antibiotic treatment (≤6 days) is as effective as and potentially superior to, in terms of mortality and serious adverse events, longer-course treatment.

Indexed as

AdultAnti-Bacterial AgentsClinical Trials as TopicCommunity-Acquired InfectionsHumansPneumoniaRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicAnti-Bacterial AgentsChlamydia pneumoniaeextendedHaemophilus influenzaeinfluenzamortalityMycoplasma pneumoniaepneumoniaprolongedshort termStreptococcus pneumoniae

Identifiers

PMID29987137
PMCPMC6125522

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.