Take Home Points
- Single dose oral dexamethasone is an excellent choice for asthma exacerbations. It takes away the compliance issue for patients who have trouble getting medications or filling medications once they leave the ED.
- Antibiotics aren’t always indicated in COPD exacerbations, but are used much more frequently than in asthma exacerbations because the structural changes in the patient’s lung lead to increased bacterial colonization. In general, if the patient has increased cough or sputum production, they probably would benefit from a course of antibiotics
- In general, azithro alone is no longer a good choice as solo covereage for community acquired pneumonia. Adding either amoxicillin or cefdinir to you amoxicillin should get you good coverage of both strep pneumo and atypicals.
Show Notes:
- REBEL EM: Management of Mild to Moderate Asthma Exacerbations
- REBEL EM: The Crashing Asthmatic
- REBEL EM: Update in Community Acquired Pneumonia Treatment: Macrolide Resistance
- Moran GJ, Talan, DA; Pneumonia, in Marx JA, Hockberger RS, Walls RM, et al (eds): Rosen’s Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice, ed 8. St. Louis, Mosby, Inc., 2010, (Ch) 76: p 978-89.
- Haran JP et al. Macrolide resistance in cases of community-acquired bacterial pneumonia in the emergency department. J Emerg Med 2018. PMID: 29789175
- Mandell LA et al. Infectious Diseases Society of America/American Thoracic Society consensus guidelines on the management of community-acquired pneumonia in adults. Clin Infect Dis 2007;44(Suppl 2):S27–72. PMID: 17278083
- Arnold FW et al. A worldwide perspective of atypical pathogens in community-acquired pneumonia. AmJ Respir Crit Care Med 2007;175:1086–93. PMID: 17332485
REBEL Core Cast 3.0 – Asthma, COPD and CAP
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Post Peer Reviewed By: Salim R. Rezaie, MD (Twitter: @srrezaie)
Cite this article as: Anand Swaminathan, "REBEL Core Cast 3.0 – Asthma, COPD + PNA", REBEL EM blog, January 23, 2019. Available at: https://rebelem.com/rebel-core-cast-3-0-asthma-copd-pna/.