Antibiotic therapy in elderly patients with acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis.

Chronic bronchitis (CB) is a critical component of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Emphysema, reversible airway disease and bronchiectasis also contribute to COPD. Elderly patients are at increased risk for COPD and its components - emphysema, CB and bronchiectasis. In addition, older patients are at increased risk for resistant organisms during episodes of acute exacerbation of CB (AECB). These organisms include the more common bacteria implicated in AECB, such as Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis and Streptococcus pneumoniae, and less common nonenteric, Gram-negative organisms such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Risk-stratified antibiotic treatment guidelines for AECB appear to be useful, although they have not been prospectively validated for the general CB population, and especially not in the elderly CB population. Many of the AECB treatment guidelines that are stratified based on risk factors have recommended that the oral respiratory fluoroquinolone antibiotics (gemifloxacin, levofloxacin and moxifloxacin) play a second-line but pivotal role, particularly in patients who have failed initial antibiotic treatment for simple CB or as initial treatment for complicated CB.