Treatment changes according to first-line oral antibiotic given for childhood pneumonia at hospital admission
| Treatment changes (outcome) | First-line oral antibiotic given in hospital | |||
| Amoxicillin | Amoxi/clav | Cefuroxime* | Macrolide† | |
| No add-on antibiotic given | 26 (63.4) | 744 (72.7) | 859 (59.8) | 114 (13.1) |
| ‘Add-on’ oral antibiotic within <3 days‡ | 4 (9.8) | 118 (11.5) | 242 (16.9) | 354 (40.6) |
| ‘Add-on’ oral antibiotic after ≥3 days‡ | 8 (19.5) | 111 (10.8) | 196 (13.6) | 287 (33.0) |
| Switch to intravenous antibiotics | 3 (7.3) | 51 (5.0) | 139 (9.7) | 116 (13.3) |
| Total | 41 | 1024 | 1436 | 871 |
*The decision to give cefuroxime instead of amoxicillin is usually not based on disease severity, but we were unable to rule out potential unmeasured bias in the patient cohorts.
†Including erythromycin, azithromycin and clarithromycin.
‡Addition of either a macrolide (if not on a macrolide) or a beta-lactam antibiotic (if on a macrolide) post admission during ward review by a senior clinician (rarely based on microbiology results).
Amoxi/clav, amoxicillin with clavulanic acid.