• Do Hyeon Park, Chan Mi Lee, Euijin Chang, Chang Kyung Kang, Wan Beom Park, Nam Joong Kim, Pyoeng Gyun Choe, and Myoung-Don Oh.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
• J. Korean Med. Sci. 2022 Jul 25; 37 (29): e238.

AbstractDespite the low prevalence of secondary bacterial infection in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, most of them were administered antibiotic therapy empirically. However, the prognostic impact of empirical antibiotic therapy has not been evaluated. We conducted retrospective propensity score-matched case-control study of 233 COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe illnesses who required oxygen therapy and evaluated whether empirical antibiotic therapy could improve clinical outcomes. Empirical antibiotic therapy did not improve clinical outcomes including length of stay, days with oxygen requirement, the proportion of patients with increased oxygen demand, the proportion of patients who required mechanical ventilation, and overall mortality. This finding implies that routine administration of antibiotics for the treatment of COVID-19 is not essential and should be restricted.© 2022 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

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