BMJ  2004;328:1567 (26 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7455.1567

Letter

Amoxicillin for non-severe pneumonia in young children

Admission to hospital may indicate adverse effects

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Some aspects of the clinical trial of the ISCAP Study Group on non-severe pneumonia in young children deserve comment.1

Evidence of pneumonia on chest radiography was not an inclusion criterion. In general practice, chest radiography can be considered a pragmatic reference standard for pneumonia.2 In fact, the study was performed in patients with clinical suspicion of pneumonia but not in patients with pneumonia. The response criteria were not criteria of clinical cure but of impairment. Patients not impaired at three or five days cannot be considered cured. Moreover, the standard duration of treatment with amoxicillin in children with pneumonia is not five days but seven to 10 days.3 Thus we consider that the three day treatment arm was not compared with standard treatment.

In the section about adverse reactions the authors mention that there were no serious adverse effects of amoxicillin but there were 41 admissions to hospital. . . . [Full text of this article]

Javier Borja, drug safety manager

J Uriach y Compañía, SA 08184 Palau de Plegamans, Barcelona, Spain fv-borja@uriach.com

David Rigau, clinical trials manager

J Uriach y Compañía, SA 08184 Palau de Plegamans, Barcelona, Spain


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Relevant Article

Three day versus five day treatment with amoxicillin for non-severe pneumonia in young children: a multicentre randomised controlled trial
BMJ 2004 328: 791. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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