Assess the effectiveness of oral versus parenteral antibiotics in children under five years of age, diagnosed with severe pneumonia in a private teaching hospital, Telangana state

Abstract

Introduction: The most significant and striking feature of pneumonia is consolidation. Pneumonia continues to be the biggest killer disease globally, of less than five years children. Pneumonia accounts for 15% of all deaths of children under 5 years old, killing 8, 08694 children in 2017.Methodology: Hospital based prospective observational comparative study. This study was conducted in the department of paediatrics, RVM institute of medical sciences and research canter. This study was approved by the RVM institutional ethical committee prior to the study. The study was conducted between the months of September 2019 to January 2020.100 children who are diagnosed with severe pneumonia were included in this the study.Results: A total of 100 children have been enrolled in the present study. Among them 56 (56%) are Males and 44 (44%) are Females. Male: female ratio was 1.3: 0.8. Treatment Failure rate in oral amoxicillin group is 24% and in Inj.ampicillin plus Amikacin (parenteral) group is 16%.The difference in treatment outcome in the two groups is not statistically significant. (p = 1.0000, p = 0.3173). Conclusion: Proper training of care givers and treating clinicians to promptly recognize the danger signs of very severe pneumonia, one can safely treat the patients with severe pneumonia with oral Amoxicillin.