Antibiotic usage in community-acquired pneumonia: results of a survey in 288 departments of internal medicine in German hospitals.

In 1989 a survey was conducted in 800 medical departments of university hospitals and large to small teaching and non-teaching hospitals in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin to gather information on the usage of antibiotics for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia. A total of 288 (36%) questionnaires could be evaluated. In cases of non-life-threatening pneumonia, the therapy specified was mostly correct, although macrolides as the treatment of choice were stated only rarely (11%). However, patients with life-threatening pneumonia were most often (50%) treated with new beta-lactam antibiotics or beta-lactam antibiotics in combination with aminoglycosides (43%). Thus, atypical pathogens causing pneumonia were not covered by most therapeutic regimens.