Clinical comparative study of sulbactam/ampicillin and imipenem/cilastatin in elderly patients with community-acquired pneumonia.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical usefulness of sulbactam/ampicillin therapy for community-acquired pneumonia in the elderly. METHODOLOGY A randomized prospective clinical study was conducted in the elderly patients with moderate-to-severe community-acquired bacterial pneumonia. RESULTS Overall clinical efficacy of sulbactam/ampicillin therapy (6 g/day) in these patients (efficacy rate: 91.4%) was comparable to that of imipenem/cilastatin therapy (1 g/day; efficacy rate: 87.5%), when each therapy was administered intravenously twice daily for 7-14 days. With regard to clinical efficacy based on disease severity, bacteriological efficacy, improvement of chest X-ray findings and adverse reactions, the two therapies were comparable. CONCLUSION These results suggest that sulbactam/ampicillin therapy has excellent efficacy and tolerability and that it may be highly effective, even in severe cases of pneumonia. This regimen may thus serve as first-line treatment for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia in elderly patients.