A new study of 20,000 asthma patients admitted for exacerbation found that those treated with antibiotics had a longer length-of-stay.
Researchers found that despite guidelines recommending against routine use of antibiotics for patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbations, 44% of patients in the study cohort received the drugs during the first 2 days of hospitalization.
Patients treated with antibiotics had significantly longer hospital stays and a similar rate of treatment failure.
The findings further highlight the need to reduce inappropriate use of antibiotics among this patient population, the researchers said.
