When to Switch Therapy in Patients with Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Abstract

Letters15 April 2008When to Switch Therapy in Patients with Severe Community-Acquired PneumoniaEric M. Mortensen, MD, MSc, Marcos I. Restrepo, MD, MSc, and Antonio Anzueto, MDEric M. Mortensen, MD, MScFrom South Texas Veterans Health Care System, San Antonio, TX 78229.Search for more papers by this author, Marcos I. Restrepo, MD, MScFrom South Texas Veterans Health Care System, San Antonio, TX 78229.Search for more papers by this author, and Antonio Anzueto, MDFrom South Texas Veterans Health Care System, San Antonio, TX 78229.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-148-8-200804150-00011 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:We read with great interest the recent Update in Hospital Medicine by Amin and Pistoria (1). However, this summary overplayed the strength of the article by Oosterheert and colleagues (2), and we disagree with the recommendations. Oosterheert and colleagues' article (2) was a ground-breaking, randomized, controlled trial that examined 2 strategies of conversion from intravenous to oral antimicrobial therapy in patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia. Unfortunately, this article had several limitations, such as lack of a true cohort of participants with severe pneumonia—the overall 28-day mortality rate was 5% versus the generally accepted rate of 20% to ...