Five Versus Seven Day Antibiotic Course for the Treatment of Pneumonia in the Intensive Care Unit

March 14, 2012 updated by: Washington University School of Medicine
The goal of the study is to determine if patients who are being treated for pneumonia in the intensive care unit can be safely treated with five days of antibiotics (the current standard is seven to eight days). The goal is to determine if the investigators can minimize antibiotic complications while still treating the infection. Patients in the study are randomly assigned to either receive antibiotics for a goal of five days or a goal of seven days. Every patient is followed daily, and if they are not responding to the antibiotics, the treating team in the intensive care unit care can continue the antibiotics for a longer course regardless of what group the patient is assigned. The investigator's hypothesis is that patients in the five day treatment goal will be able to receive less antibiotics than patients in the seven day treatment goal without any adverse effects.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This is a pilot study to determine if patients with pneumonia in the intensive care unit can safely receive five days of antibiotics. All patients admitted to the medical and surgical intensive care units at Barnes-Jewish Hospital with pneumonia will be screened for the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patients will be randomized by sealed envelopes in groups of six to a five or seven day course of antibiotics. The choice of the antibiotic to be used is determined by the intensive care unit treating team. The patients will NOT be randomized to a specific antibiotic. The patients will be followed for a clinical response by improvement in maximum daily temperature, white blood cell count, and PaO2 to FiO2 ratio. Antibiotics can continue past the goal duration for patients in either group if the above criteria are not met or if the attending physician in the intensive care unit feels that a longer course is needed. The treating team in the intensive care unit will not be blinded to the patient's treatment assignment.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

46

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • New diagnosis of pneumonia
  • Patient in medical or surgical intensive care unit
  • Age greater or equal than 18 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Neutropenia
  • Recipient of a solid organ or bone marrow transplant
  • Bacteremia
  • Presence of Acinetobacter baumannii or Stenotrophomonas maltophilia from a respiratory tract culture
  • Presence of a second infection requiring antibiotic therapy
  • Pregnancy
  • Enrollment in another clinical study
  • Patient or surrogate unable to provide informed consent
  • Attending intensive care unit physician declined enrollment in the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 5 Days
The choice of the specific antibiotic is made by the treating intensive care unit attending physician. The patients will be randomized to two separate groups based on length of antibiotic therapy not specific antibiotics. Therefore, the actual antibiotic that will be given is not determined by the study. The patients all will receive antibiotics for pneumonia chosen by the intensive care unit team, and those in this group receive a goal of 5 days.
Placebo Comparator: 7 days
The choice of the specific antibiotic is made by the treating intensive care unit attending physician. The patients will be randomized to two separate groups based on length of antibiotic therapy not specific antibiotics. Therefore, the actual antibiotic that will be given is not determined by the study. The patients all will receive antibiotics for pneumonia that is determined by the treating intensive care unit team, and those in this group receive a goal of 7 days.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Length of antibiotic therapy
Time Frame: 28 days
28 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Mortality
Time Frame: 28 days
28 days
Hospital Length of Stay
Time Frame: 28 Days
28 Days
Clostridium difficile diarrhea
Time Frame: 28 Days
28 Days
Development of a new multi-drug resistant bacteria from a lower respiratory tract culture
Time Frame: 28 days
Patients will not receive routine follow-up respiratory cultures as part of the protocol. However, if a culture is obtained on a clinical basis and the culture grows a new multi-drug resistant bacteria, then this outcome is met. The outcome does NOT have a specific unit of measure as it is a measure of whether a multi-drug resistant bacteria is present or not. The definition for a multi-drug resistant bacteria is based on the definition provided by the European Centers for Disease Control.
28 days
Recurrent lower respiratory tract infection
Time Frame: 28 days
28 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 7, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 14, 2012

First Posted (Estimate)

March 15, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

March 15, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 14, 2012

Last Verified

March 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 201108280

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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