Clinical treatment for elderly community-acquired pneumonia and its prognosis analysis

Abstract

Objective To observe the relationship between clinical medication and the prognosis in elderly community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Methods A prospective randomized controlled single-blind study in Tianjin Hospital Internal Medicine. A total of 160 elderly patients with CAP were selected from January 2011 and January 2015. According to the computer, patients were randomly divided into treatment group and control group, 80 cases in each group. Treatment group adopted routine treatment and moderate amount of glucocorticoids in combination with a low-dose of diuretic, and the control group only received routine treatment. In two groups of patients, we observed the initial treatment effect, change in pulse oxygen saturation, the rate of invasive test, the incidence of adverse reactions, mortality rate, total hospital stay, etc. Results Compared with control group, the initial treatment was better, the improvement rate in SPO2 was increased, and the rate of invasive test was decreased in treatment group 72 hours after treatment (χ2=6.234, 3.906 and 7.059, respectively, P=0.013, 0.048 and 0.008). After the overall prognosis and outcome analysis, compared with control group, the percentage of patients transferred to the intensive care unit, the mortality rate was decreased (χ2=4.783 and 4.737, P=0.029 and 0.030), hospitalization cost was declined, and the total hospital stay was shorted (χ2=–72.087 and–5.127, both P 0.05). Conclusions Corticosteroids in combination with a low-dose of diuretic for the auxiliary treatment of elderly CAP can reduce the mortality rate, decrease the rate of invasive test, and shorten the duration of hospitalization, with no obvious increase of adverse events, and it help to improve the prognosis of CAP patients. Key words: Pneumonia; Glucocorticoids; Diuretic