A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF MEROPENEM AND CEFTAZIDIME IN THE TREATMENT OF PATIENTS HOSPITALIZED WITH COMMUNITY-ACQUIRED PNEUMONIA

This multicenter, open-label, randomized clinical trial compared the e fficacy and tolerability of intravenous (TV) meropenem 0.5 g every 8 h ours (n = 147) and IV ceftazidime 1 g every 8 hours (n = 148) as empir ic monotherapy for 295 patients hospitalized with community-acquired p neumonia, Seventy-four meropenem recipients and 81 ceftazidime recipie nts with pneumonia were assessable both clinically and bacteriological ly, In these patients, no statistically significant differences were r eported in the satisfactory clinical (95% with meropenem vs 90% with c eftazidime) or bacteriologic (95% with meropenem vs 93% with ceftazidi me) response rates with the two agents at the end of treatment. High s atisfactory clinical (95% with meropenem vs 92% with ceftazidime) and bacteriologic (97% with meropenem vs 89% with ceftazidime) response ra tes mere maintained at follow-up (2 to 4 weeks later), In 90 patients who were clinically assessable but bacteriologically unassessable (no pretreatment pathogen isolated), both agents produced a satisfactory c linical response rate of 87% at the end of therapy, Streptococcus pneu moniae was the most frequently isolated pretreatment pathogen (28%), b ut nosocomial-type pathogens such as Escherichia coil (5%), Pseudomona s aeruginosa (11%), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (6%) were also frequentl y isolated, Both medications were well tolerated, and the types of tre atment-related adverse events mere similar in the two treatment groups , These findings indicate that meropenem 0.5 g every 8 hours is a usef ul option for the empiric treatment of patients hospitalized with comm unity-acquired pneumonia.