Short-course and sequential moxifloxacin therapy in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia in elderly patients:clinical evaluation

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the short-course and sequential moxifloxacin therapy in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in elderly patients.Methods This analysis was based on the outcomes in 91 patients aged ≥65 years from a randomized,double-blind,controlled trial conducted at our hospital.Patients (mild to moderate) were randomized to receive moxifloxacin therapy for 10 days or 5 days and sequential moxifloxacin therapy for 5 days.Results ① The overall cure rates and efficacy rates were 68.8% and 90.6% in the group A ( the control group),66.7% and 90.0% in the group B,62.1% and 82.8% in the group C,respectively.The bacterial clearance rates were 84.6% in the group A,85.7% in the group B,76.9% in the group C,respectively.There were no significant differences (P0.05) among the three groups in the above results.② The incidence of adverse drug reactions of the three groups were 9.4%,6.7% and 6.9 %,respectively.There were no significant differences (P0.05) among the three groups in the above results.Conclusion This analysis finds that moxifloxacin sequential therapy for 5 days is well tolerated in the treatment of CAP in elderly patients.Clinical success rates are statistically similar between moxifloxacin sequential therapy for 5 days and moxifloxacin therapy for 5 or 10 days.