Ceftriaxone, a broad spectrum
third-generation cephalosporin with a half-life of six to eight hours, was evaluated prospectively in 147 children with severe community-acquired
bacterial pneumonia during the period 11/15/88-5/15/89. Thirty-nine of the children had been unsuccessfully treated with vanous oral
antibiotics prior to admission [corrected]. All the patients were initially hospitalized and started on once a day intramuscular
ceftriaxone. Mean duration of
ceftriaxone therapy was five days. Pathogens were recovered from blood cultures of 17 (11.6%) patients and included S. pneumoniae (13 patients), H. influenzae (three, all resistant to
ampicillin) and S. viridans (1) [corrected]. All isolates were sensitive to
ceftriaxone. An additional patient had L. pneumophila diagnosed by serology. Cure was achieved in 142 (96.6%) patients; improvement was usually observed within 24-48 hours. After 48 hours, 121 (82.2%) children could be discharged and continued the
therapy on ambulatory basis. Based on previous experience we estimated that 383 hospitalization days were saved. No serious side effects were observed. Five patients were considered therapeutic failures; two of them developed
empyema and one of them required repeated drainage procedures. A third patient experienced a relapse of
pneumonia shortly after completion of
therapy. The other two remained febrile for more than seven days; their subsequent improvement was unrelated to the
antibiotic therapy, suggesting a viral or mycoplasmal syndrome. Our data suggest that once daily intramuscular
ceftriaxone can be successfully used for the outpatient treatment of most community-acquired severe
bacterial pneumonias in children. In our opinion it represents the treatment of choice for patients who failed treatment with other antimicrobials and are clinically stable enough not to require hospitalization.