Study patients
All adult patients (≥18 years) admitted for CAP and included in the clinical trial were included. Pneumonia was defined as a pulmonary infiltrate on chest X-ray not known to be old, and with symptoms indicative of pneumonia, such as cough, dyspnea, fever, and / or pleural pain. All patients previously excluded from the clinical trial due to infection by the human immunodeficiency virus were excluded, as well as the immunosuppressed (those with organ transplants or with splenectomy, those treated with 10mg/day of prednisone or equivalent for more than 30 days or with other immunosuppressive agents, neutropenic patients), those hospitalized in the previous 14 days, patients who received prior antibiotic treatment in the previous 30 days and institutionalized patients.
The study also excluded cases of pneumonia caused by infrequent agents (eg P. aerouginosa, S. aureus), infectious processes that required prolonged treatment with antibiotics (i.e. bacterial endocarditis, abscesses), pneumonia with pleural effusion that required drainage, those who died or who were admitted to the ICU before randomization and those who did not give their informed consent.