COMPARISON BETWEEN THE EFFECT OF CEFTRIAXONE AND AZITHROMYCIN IN THE MANAGEMENT OF COMMUNITY ACQUIRED PNEUMONIA PATIENTS IN HOSPITAL SETTING

Abstract

Introduction: pneumonia can be defined as symptoms that incorporate acute lower respiratory tract (LRT) infection, comprising of cough and a minimum of one more LRT symptom, in parallel to any other ‘systemic symptom and new focal signs on chest examination. Annually, there were approximately 151.8 million cases about a decade ago and among them 8.7% (13.1 million) required hospitalization. India ranks in top five countries on basis of CAP load with more than 23% worldwide cases.
 Materials and Methods: the design of this study is a Retrospective Cohort. A total of 123 patients ranging from 3 years old to 17 years old with a average of 9.90 years old, with bacterial pneumonia were included in the study. The diagnostic criteria of Infectious Disease Society of America and the British Thoracic Society were used in this study to determine the diagnosis and conclusion of the study. Out of 123 patients, 65 patients (Group 1) were given azithromycin at the initial dosage of 10 mg/kg followed by 5 mg/kg for 2 to 5 days while 58 patients (Group 2) were given ceftriaxone at the single intramuscular dose of 50 mg/kg. The clinical criteria and Likelihood criteria was determined before and after the treatment in both the groups to compare the efficiency of the two drugs. The adverse effects of the two drugs were also considered.
 Result: the clinical criteria and Likelihood Ratio was determined before starting the treatment. On Day 5th,after completion of the treatment in both the groups,all the patients were again re-assessed. Group 1 showed more improvement as compared to group 2 patients as the fever in group 1 patients came down to 2.43% from 52.84% of the total number of patients. A high respiratory rate was found in 2.43% of 123 patients in the case of group 1 as compared to 4.06% of 123 patients in the case of group 2. Group 1 patients showed adverse effects like diarrhea, itching and nausea while group 2 patients showed tarry stool, sore throat and weakness as adverse effects. 12.19% of the total patients showed adverse effects from group 1 while 35.77% of the total patients showed adverse effects from group 2.
 Conclusion: the study concludes that although both of the drugs used are effective in managing CAP. Azithromycin regimen has a significantly beneficial as compared to a single intramuscular dose of ceftriaxone.
 Keywords: pneumonia, CAP, azithromycin, ceftriaxone, antibiotic