EVALUATION OF RISK FACTORS, ANTIBIOTIC USE AND OUTCOMES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF BRONCHOPNEUMONIA IN PEDIATRIC DEPARTMENT

Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death in children around the world. The objectives of the study are 1. To evaluate inuence of risk factors (age, pre-hospital antibiotic use, immunization status, mode of feeding and house overcrowding) on occurrence of pneumonia.2. To evaluate the proportion of pneumonia caused by various organisms.3. To determine the most commonly used antibiotics and concomitant therapy.4.To monitor the ADR'S associated with antimicrobial therapy.5.To study the outcomes in these patients. The study was carried out in Inpatient hospital setting. Subjects of age less than or equal to 13 years of both gender with clinical features of pneumonia and without concurrent infections were included in the study. Of 300 patients no growth was seen in 52.6% of patients. House overcrowding was found to have signicant association with the prevalence of pneumonia. Piperacillin-tazobactam was administered in 54.6% of patient and Piperacillin-tazobactam and linezolid were administered to 27.3% of patients and ceftriaxone was administered in 18% of patients. In mild to moderate bronchopneumonia, the effect of piperacillin-tazobactam and ceftriaxone showed good response with a small margin of difference. This study concludes that linezolid is a useful addition for the treatment of bronchopneumonia when there is no clinical improvement within 48 hours.