Does sputum culture affect the management and/or outcome of community-acquired pneumonia?

This prospective study was conducted in 6 hospitals in Edmonton, Canada to determinethe factors associated with obtaining sputum for culture and the effect of sputum culture on themanagement of patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Participants were 1362 adultswho were hospitalized with CAP. Sputum was obtained from 539 (39.6%) patients, of which 507(94.1%) were good quality, acceptable for culture; 171 (33.7%) of these had a positive sputum culture.Levofloxacin, cefuroxime and azithromycin were the most common antibiotics prescribed for the groupswith positive sputum culture and no sputum collection. Positive sputum culture was demonstrated inonly a small number of patients with CAP; this did not affect antimicrobial therapy or mortality.