Pneumonia: Are we putting the CURB score into practice?

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7551.1213-a

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D Owen (david.owen@doctors.net.uk), senior house officer (medicine),
Tamara Shiner, senior house officer (medicine),
Ramachandran Sivakumar, specialist registrar (care of elderly),
Richard Dent, consultant (respiratory medicine),
Christopher Hilton, preregistration house officer (medicine)

Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 4HQ
Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 4HQ
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London SW10 9NH

EDITOR—Hoare and Li suggest that patients with pneumonia should receive antibiotics intravenously if they have a CURB score of at least 3, or contraindications to oral treatment, which may include malabsorption, impaired consciousness, or risk of aspiration.1 They also assert that intravenous antibiotics should be changed to oral treatment as soon as possible.

These …