Skip Navigation



JAC Advance Access published online on July 18, 2008
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, doi:10.1093/jac/dkn283
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
62/4/661    most recent
dkn283v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Siempos, I. I.
Right arrow Articles by Falagas, M. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Siempos, I. I.
Right arrow Articles by Falagas, M. E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Systematic review

Adjunctive therapies for community-acquired pneumonia: a systematic review

Ilias I. Siempos1, Konstantinos Z. Vardakas1, Petros Kopterides1,2 and Matthew E. Falagas1,3,4,*

1 Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences (AIBS), Athens, Greece 2 Critical Care Department, ‘Attikon’ University Hospital, Athens, Greece 3 Department of Medicine, Henry Dunant Hospital, Athens, Greece 4 Department of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

Received 29 February 2008; returned 12 April 2008; revised 9 June 2008; accepted 12 June 2008

* Correspondence address. Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences (AIBS), 9 Neapoleos Street, 151 23 Marousi, Greece. Tel: +30-694-61-10-000; Fax: +30-210-68-39-605; E-mail: m.falagas{at}aibs.gr

Background: We endeavoured to accumulate and evaluate the available evidence regarding therapies that have been investigated as potential adjuncts to antimicrobials for the treatment of immunocompetent adult patients with bacterial community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).

Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and of Systematic Reviews, and bibliographies of relevant articles were searched. A meta-analysis was performed whenever applicable.

Results: Administration of corticosteroids in patients with severe CAP was associated with lower mortality compared with placebo (odds ratio 0.21, 95% confidence interval 0.05–0.83). There was no evidence suggesting a survival benefit by the administration of activated protein C, non-invasive mechanical ventilation, anticoagulants, immunoglobulin, granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor, statins, probiotics, chest physiotherapy, antiplatelet drugs, over-the-counter cough medications, β2-agonists, inhaled nitric oxide and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in patients with CAP.

Conclusions: This review outlines the potential usefulness of the numerous adjunctive therapies for CAP and underlines the need for further research in the field.

Key Words: respiratory tract infection , intensive care unit , Streptococcus pneumoniae , Staphylococcus aureus , CAP


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Eur Respir JHome page
K. Z. Vardakas, D. K. Matthaiou, and M. E. Falagas
Incidence, characteristics and outcomes of patients with severe community acquired-MRSA pneumonia
Eur. Respir. J., November 1, 2009; 34(5): 1148 - 1158.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 CMAJHome page
K. Z. Vardakas MD, I. I. Siempos MD, A. Grammatikos MD, Z. Athanassa MD, I. P. Korbila MD, and M. E. Falagas MD DSc
Respiratory fluoroquinolones for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Can. Med. Assoc. J., December 2, 2008; 179(12): 1269 - 1277.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.