ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Utility of blood cultures in the management of adults with community acquired pneumonia discharged from the emergency department

S G Campbell¹, T J Marrie², R Anstey³, S Ackroyd-Stolarz¹ and G Dickinson⁴

¹ Department of Emergency Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
² Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
³ Endpoint Research Ltd, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
⁴ Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr S G Campbell
Department of Emergency Medicine, Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, 1796 Summer Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3A7; emsgc{at}qe2-hsc.ns.ca

Study Objective: To assess the clinical value of blood cultures (BCs) in the management of adult patients discharged from the emergency department (ED) with a diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia (CAP).

Methods: The courses of antibiotic regimens and outcomes of patients with positive BC results were examined to assess their influence on BCs.

Results: BCs were obtained from 289 outpatients. Six clinically significant organisms were identified (a yield of 2.1%). Outpatients with CAP who had blood cultures performed had a 0.69% (2 of 289) chance of having a change of treatment directed by the results of the culture.

Conclusion: BCs have little utility in the ambulatory management of CAP.

Keywords: community acquired pneumonia; outpatient; microbiology; blood cultures

Abbreviations: CAP, community acquired pneumonia; BC, blood culture; ED, emergency department

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