Evidence Hub

Target Trial Emulation of Empiric Antibiotics on Clinical Outcomes in Moderately Immunocompromised Patients Hospitalized with Pneumonia

Louis Saravolatz, Tejal N. Gandhi, Valerie M. Vaughn, D. Ratz, Jennifer K. Horowitz, Ashwin B. Gupta, E. Mclaughlin, T. Czilok et al.

Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2025

2,706 participants · 8 citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Immunocompromised patients are often excluded from pneumonia trials, guidelines, and stewardship interventions.The objective of this study was to evaluate whether empiric broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment impacts mortality and other clinical outcomes in moderately immunocompromised patients without risk factors for multidrug-resistant organisms hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia.

METHODS

This was a target trial emulation including moderately immunocompromised (asplenia, hematologic malignancies, solid organ malignancy receiving chemotherapy, kidney transplant >1 year prior, congenital/acquired immunodeficiency and receiving immunosuppressive medications) patients with pneumonia without risk factors for multidrug-resistant organisms at 69 hospitals in the Michigan Hospital Medicine Safety ConsortiumThis study compared the receipt of empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics against antibiotics targeting typical respiratory pathogens on hospital day 1 or 2.The primary outcome was mortality. Secondary outcomes included length of stay, transfer to the intensive care unit and 30-day readmission, emergency department visit, Clostridioides difficile infection and antibiotic-associated adverse events.

RESULTS

Of 2706 moderately immunocompromised patients with pneumonia, 59% (N=1596) received empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics. MRSA and resistant gram-negative bacteria were rare (94/2706, 3.5%). After adjustment, empiric broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment was not…

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free