# Clinical efficacy and safety of antibiotic combination therapy in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia in children

## TL;DR

This study finds that combining cefotaxime with azithromycin improves treatment outcomes for children with pneumonia, with faster symptom relief and reduced inflammation.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that antibiotic combination therapy improves clinical efficacy and inflammatory response in pediatric pneumonia.

## Key findings

- Combination therapy reduced fever, cough, and lung rales faster than azithromycin alone.
- Combination therapy led to greater reductions in inflammatory markers like CRP, IL-6, and IL-8.
- Combination therapy showed higher overall efficacy without increased adverse reactions.

## Abstract

To determine the efficacy and safety of cefotaxime combined with azithromycin in the treatment of children with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and its effect on inflammatory factors.

This is an observational study. A total of 118 children with CAP admitted to our hospital from June, 2022 to December, 2023 were randomly selected. According to the random number table method, they were divided into a control group and a combination treatment group, with 59 children in each group. The children in the control group were treated with azithromycin, and those in the combination treatment group were treated with cefotaxime combined with azithromycin. Both groups were treated for a week. The disappearance time of symptoms (fever, pulmonary rales, cough) and the improvement of inflammatory indicators (serum interleukin-6 (IL-6), serum C-reactive protein (CRP), and serum interleukin-8 (IL-8)) after treatment were compared. The clinical efficacy and adverse reactions were compared between the two groups.

The disappearance time of fever, pulmonary rales, and cough in the combination treatment group was significantly shorter than that in the control group (P < 0.05). After treatment, the serum levels of CRP, IL-6, and IL-8 in the two groups were lower than those before treatment, and the reduction in the combination treatment group was larger than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The total efficacy of the combination treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the total incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups (P > 0.05).

Cefotaxime combined with azithromycin in the treatment of CAP in children can significantly improve the efficacy, quickly relieve clinical symptoms, improve the body’s defense mechanism, inhibit inflammatory response, and has high safety, which is worthy of clinical promotion.