This week’s featured article is a top tips article on the primary care assessment and management of adults with community-acquired pneumonia. Identifying which patients with a lower respiratory tract infection have pneumonia, and which of those with pneumonia require admission to hospital, can prove challenging. Dr Sinan Eccles provides advice on diagnosing pneumonia based on examination findings and symptoms, differentiating pneumonia from other respiratory infections, and using CRB-65 to determine the need for hospital assessment.
The article includes a useful algorithm, which summarises when point-of-care CRP testing should be used and when to prescribe antibiotics. Dr Eccles explains which antibiotics should be used to treat pneumonia, and the expected timeframe for resolution of pneumonia symptoms.
In other news, Guidelines in Practice highlights emails are moving. We have done some research and found that most clinicians have more time to spend reading articles over the weekend, so to reflect this we are moving our weekly highlights emails to Saturday. Expect the next update from me on Saturday 10 November!