EDITORIALS
Antibiotics at COPD exacerbations: the debate continues
Correspondence to:
Professor Jadwiga A Wedzicha, Academic Unit of Respiratory Medicine, Royal Free and University College Medical School, Rowland Hill Street, Hampstead, London NW3 2PF, UK; J.A.Wedzicha@medsch.ucl.ac.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The course of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is affected by the presence of exacerbations that are episodes of worsening of respiratory symptoms commonly triggered by airway infections, including respiratory viruses and airway bacteria.1 COPD exacerbations have important adverse effects on health status2 and mortality3 and affect the course of the disease.4 Thus there is considerable interest in the effectiveness of interventions used both to treat exacerbations and prevent further events.
Exacerbations are usually treated with oral corticosteroids and/or antibiotics depending on exacerbation severity and the nature of the symptoms. There is now considerable evidence for benefit of a course of oral corticosteroids at exacerbation5 6 and also for antibiotics when two of the three symptoms of increased dyspnoea, sputum volume and purulence are present.7 However, there is still some controversy concerning the role of antibiotics at COPD exacerbation, especially in studies performed in primary care8 where generally patients with milder
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Thorax 2008 63: 968-973.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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