Antibiotic Therapy in Preventing Exacerbations of Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive disease that has no cure but is treatable. The treatment goal is to have adequate symptom control, decreased exacerbations, prevent hospitalizations and maintain an independent quality of life. • The review of literature is to determine if the benefits of long-term antimicrobial therapy outweigh the risks in the treatment of severe COPD. • The gold standard for pharmacotherapy consists of inhaled corticosteroids and bronchodilators (long-acting beta2agonist (LABA). • Adding azithromycin to standard therapy for patients with frequent exacerbations showed a 27% reduction in exacerbation frequency. • With prolonged use of antimicrobials there is an increased risk of bacterial resistance. However, in doing this research, it was found that bacterial resistance was not noticed between azithromycin (52%) versus placebo (57%), p = 0.64. • Although long-term antimicrobial therapy is becoming a hot topic, it is imperative that we continue to study the detrimental development of bacterial resistance.https://commons.und.edu/pas-grad-posters/1026/thumbnail.jp