Acute Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Exacerbation Duration of Therapy
Acute Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Exacerbation Duration of Therapy
Recommended Duration
5 days
Shortest Duration
Minimum duration studied without evidence of reduced efficacy
5 days
Excluded Patients
Only for patients meeting criteria for antibiotic treatment
Additional Notes
Shorter duration of 5 days has been extensively studied using multiple different drug classes, in inpatient and outpatient populations, with consistently equivalent results
However there is still no comment on duration in major society guidelines
Adapted from AMMI Canada Position Statement on the Appropriate Duration of Antimicrobial Therapy (2018
El Moussaoui R, Roede B, Speelman P et al., Short-course antibiotic treatment in acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis and COPD: a meta-analysis of double-blind studies, Thorax, 63:415–422. 2008