Clinical pediatrics
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Clinical pediatrics · Nov 1990
Once-daily intramuscular ceftriaxone in the outpatient treatment of severe community-acquired pneumonia in children.
Ceftriaxone, a broad spectrum third-generation cephalosporin with a half-life of six to eight hours, was evaluated prospectively in 147 children with severe community-acquired bacterial pneumonia during the period 11/15/88-5/15/89. Thirty-nine of the children had been unsuccessfully treated with vanous oral antibiotics prior to admission [corrected]. All the patients were initially hospitalized and started on once a day intramuscular ceftriaxone. ⋯ The other two remained febrile for more than seven days; their subsequent improvement was unrelated to the antibiotic therapy, suggesting a viral or mycoplasmal syndrome. Our data suggest that once daily intramuscular ceftriaxone can be successfully used for the outpatient treatment of most community-acquired severe bacterial pneumonias in children. In our opinion it represents the treatment of choice for patients who failed treatment with other antimicrobials and are clinically stable enough not to require hospitalization.