SynthesisClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2023
Antibiotic Treatment Duration for Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Outpatient Children in High-Income Countries-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Working group summary of the 2023 full update of the Finnish national guidelines for paediatric lower respiratory tract infections.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2025Guideline
- Treatment of mild to moderate community-acquired pneumonia in previously healthy children: an Italian intersociety consensus (SIPPS-SIP-SITIP-FIMP-SIAIP-SIMRI-FIMMG-SIMG).Italian journal of pediatrics · 2024Pooled it
- Comparative study of piperacillin-tazobactam versus ampicillin in the treatment of severe pneumonia in children: A retrospective study.Medicine · 2026Article
- Early Antibiotic Discontinuation for Children With a Positive Rapid Respiratory Viral Test Hospitalized for Suspected Bacterial Tracheostomy-Associated Infections.Pediatric pulmonology · 2026Article
- Appropriateness and Abuse of Antipyretics, Anti-Inflammatory Drugs and Antibiotics in Children and Adults.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Barriers to Compliance with National Guidelines Among Children Hospitalized with Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Vietnam and the Implications.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Antibiotics for Paediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia: What is the Optimal Course Duration?Paediatric drugs · 2025Review
- Antibiotic duration for common bacterial infections-a systematic review.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2025Review
- Antibiotic optimization in hospitalized children with non-severe community-acquired pneumonia: lessons from an antimicrobial stewardship intervention (2022-2024).Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- A novel Bacillus aerolatus CX253 attenuates inflammation induced by Streptococcus pneumoniae in childhood and pregnant rats by regulating gut microbiome.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2024Article
- Leading Paediatric Infectious Diseases-Current Trends, Gaps, and Future Prospects in Oral Pharmacotherapeutic Interventions.Pharmaceutics · 2024Review
- Article
- Review
- Childhood community-acquired pneumonia.European journal of pediatrics · 2024Review
- Controversies in Antibiotic Use for Chronic Wet Cough in Children.The Journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- Quality of antibiotic prescribing for pediatric community-acquired Pneumonia in outpatient care.BMC pediatrics · 2023Article
- Short-course antibiotic therapy for pneumonia in the neonatal intensive care unit.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2023Article
- Antibiotic treatment duration for community-acquired pneumonia in children.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2023Article
- Short-term antibiotic therapy for the most common bacterial respiratory infections in infants and children.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Review
- Nasopharyngeal aspirates in children with severe community-acquired pneumonia collected within 3 days before bronchoscopy can partially reflect the pathogens in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe optimal treatment duration of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children has been controversial in high-income countries. We conducted a meta-analysis to compare short antibiotic treatment (3-5 days) with longer treatment (7-10 days) among children aged ≥6 months.
methodsOn 31 January 2022, we searched PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases for studies published in English from 2003 to 2022. We included randomized controlled trials focusing on antibiotic treatment duration in children with CAP treated as outpatients. We calculated risk differences (RDs) with 95% confidence intervals and used the fixed-effect model (low heterogeneity). Our main outcome was treatment failure, defined as need for retreatment or hospitalization within 1 month. Our secondary outcome was presence of antibiotic-related harms.
resultsA total of 541 studies were screened, and 4 studies with 1541 children were included in the review. Three studies had low risk of bias, and one had some concerns. All 4 studies assessed treatment failures, and the RD was 0.1% (95% confidence interval, -3.0% to 2.0%) with high quality of evidence. Two studies (1194 children) assessed adverse events related to antibiotic treatment, and the RD was 0.0% (-5.0% to 5.0%) with moderate quality of evidence. The diagnostic criteria varied between the included studies.
conclusionsA short antibiotic treatment duration of 3-5 days was equally effective and safe compared with the longer (current) recommendation of 7-10 days in children aged ≥6 months with CAP. We suggest that short antibiotic courses can be implemented in treatment of pediatric CAP.
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