How to Treat Pneumonia
Take care of mild cases., Deal with moderate cases., Seek help for severe cases., Take the right antibiotics., Treat hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP).
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Take care of mild cases.
If you have a mild case of pneumonia, you will be treated as an outpatient.
If the patient is a child, she may be admitted to the hospital if the doctor thinks it may get worse.
Your doctor will start you on an antibiotic regimen.
Your doctor will also suggest rest and increased sleep in order to get better as quickly as possible.
Even in mild cases, you should not go to school or work until your doctor says you can.
Total recovery is generally seven to 10 days.
Some types of pneumonia are highly contagious, while others are only passed to others under optimal conditions.When you are diagnosed, ask your doctor about how contagious your particular pneumonia is, and for how long you will be considered contagious.You should see a significant improvement in your symptoms within 48 hours of treatment.
This means you should no longer have a fever and have an overall increase in strength.
There is no need for special care when cleaning up after a patient with pneumonia.
The germs that cause it are not viable on inanimate objects for any substantial time frame and will be removed with normal washing. -
Step 2: Deal with moderate cases.
Moderate cases of pneumonia are those with significant respiratory compromise and require supplemental oxygen to keep their oxygen saturation up.
These patients will also have fever and overall sickly appearance.
If this is how your pneumonia manifests, you will likely be admitted to inpatient wards to receive intravenous antibiotics.
The kind of antibiotics you get will not change, they will just be in IV form in order to get the drugs into your system faster.
You will be changed to oral antibiotics as your fever breaks and you become responsive to therapy.
This typically takes no more than 48 hours.
The treatment from here follows the same for mild cases, because the case has transitioned from moderate to mild., Severe cases of pneumonia are those with patients who are going through respiratory failure.
This requires intubation and mechanical ventilation.
It may also require being admitted to the intensive care unit.Like with moderate cases, IV antibiotics are required.
These cases often require vasopressor support with pressors (medications which raise your blood pressure) to counter the effects of septic shock.
While in the hospital, you will need supportive care to improve your general health while the medications do their work.
Once you improve, you will follow the care for moderate and then mild cases as you get better.
The length of your hospital stay will depend on the severity of the damage to your lungs and how bad your case of pneumonia was.Your doctor may utilize bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) in select patients to prevent intubation and traditional mechanical ventilation.BiPAP is a non-invasive way to deliver pressurized air to a patient, often used to treat sleep apnea., There are a few different antibiotics that you can take if you get pneumonia.
Your doctor will determine which kind of pathogen caused your pneumonia, which will then determine which medicine you take.
For the most common forms of pneumonia, antibiotics such as zithromax or doxycycline are combined with amoxicillin, augmentin, ampicillin, cefaclor, or cefotaxime.
The dosage will depend on the age and severity of your case, as well as your allergies and the culture results.
You doctor may prescribe the less common but effective single antibiotic therapy route, which is a respiratory quinolone such as Levaquin or Avelox for adults.Quinolones not indicated for pediatric populations.
In moderate cases and mild cases on the verge of hospitalization, your doctor may give you a rocephin IV followed with the oral regimen.
In all these cases, your doctor will follow up within a few days to see how your symptoms are progressing., Patients that get HAP are already dealing with health issues.
This makes their treatment a little different than community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), though these methods may be used in rare and severe cases of CAP.
HAP can be caused by many different types of pathogens, so your doctor will determine which kind you have and then administer the antibiotics according to the pathogen infecting your.
The common treatments are:
For Klebsiella and E Coli, IV antibiotics such as quinolone, ceftazidime, or ceftriaxone For Pseudomonas, IV antibiotics and imipenem, piperacillin, or cefepime For Staph Aureus or MRSA, IV antibiotics such as vancomycin For fungal pneumonias, IV antibiotics such as Amphotericin B or Diflucan IV For vancomycin resistant enterococcus:
IV antibiotics of Ceftaroline -
Step 3: Seek help for severe cases.
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Step 4: Take the right antibiotics.
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Step 5: Treat hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP).
Detailed Guide
If you have a mild case of pneumonia, you will be treated as an outpatient.
If the patient is a child, she may be admitted to the hospital if the doctor thinks it may get worse.
Your doctor will start you on an antibiotic regimen.
Your doctor will also suggest rest and increased sleep in order to get better as quickly as possible.
Even in mild cases, you should not go to school or work until your doctor says you can.
Total recovery is generally seven to 10 days.
Some types of pneumonia are highly contagious, while others are only passed to others under optimal conditions.When you are diagnosed, ask your doctor about how contagious your particular pneumonia is, and for how long you will be considered contagious.You should see a significant improvement in your symptoms within 48 hours of treatment.
This means you should no longer have a fever and have an overall increase in strength.
There is no need for special care when cleaning up after a patient with pneumonia.
The germs that cause it are not viable on inanimate objects for any substantial time frame and will be removed with normal washing.
Moderate cases of pneumonia are those with significant respiratory compromise and require supplemental oxygen to keep their oxygen saturation up.
These patients will also have fever and overall sickly appearance.
If this is how your pneumonia manifests, you will likely be admitted to inpatient wards to receive intravenous antibiotics.
The kind of antibiotics you get will not change, they will just be in IV form in order to get the drugs into your system faster.
You will be changed to oral antibiotics as your fever breaks and you become responsive to therapy.
This typically takes no more than 48 hours.
The treatment from here follows the same for mild cases, because the case has transitioned from moderate to mild., Severe cases of pneumonia are those with patients who are going through respiratory failure.
This requires intubation and mechanical ventilation.
It may also require being admitted to the intensive care unit.Like with moderate cases, IV antibiotics are required.
These cases often require vasopressor support with pressors (medications which raise your blood pressure) to counter the effects of septic shock.
While in the hospital, you will need supportive care to improve your general health while the medications do their work.
Once you improve, you will follow the care for moderate and then mild cases as you get better.
The length of your hospital stay will depend on the severity of the damage to your lungs and how bad your case of pneumonia was.Your doctor may utilize bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) in select patients to prevent intubation and traditional mechanical ventilation.BiPAP is a non-invasive way to deliver pressurized air to a patient, often used to treat sleep apnea., There are a few different antibiotics that you can take if you get pneumonia.
Your doctor will determine which kind of pathogen caused your pneumonia, which will then determine which medicine you take.
For the most common forms of pneumonia, antibiotics such as zithromax or doxycycline are combined with amoxicillin, augmentin, ampicillin, cefaclor, or cefotaxime.
The dosage will depend on the age and severity of your case, as well as your allergies and the culture results.
You doctor may prescribe the less common but effective single antibiotic therapy route, which is a respiratory quinolone such as Levaquin or Avelox for adults.Quinolones not indicated for pediatric populations.
In moderate cases and mild cases on the verge of hospitalization, your doctor may give you a rocephin IV followed with the oral regimen.
In all these cases, your doctor will follow up within a few days to see how your symptoms are progressing., Patients that get HAP are already dealing with health issues.
This makes their treatment a little different than community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), though these methods may be used in rare and severe cases of CAP.
HAP can be caused by many different types of pathogens, so your doctor will determine which kind you have and then administer the antibiotics according to the pathogen infecting your.
The common treatments are:
For Klebsiella and E Coli, IV antibiotics such as quinolone, ceftazidime, or ceftriaxone For Pseudomonas, IV antibiotics and imipenem, piperacillin, or cefepime For Staph Aureus or MRSA, IV antibiotics such as vancomycin For fungal pneumonias, IV antibiotics such as Amphotericin B or Diflucan IV For vancomycin resistant enterococcus:
IV antibiotics of Ceftaroline
About the Author
Amy Edwards
Enthusiastic about teaching practical skills techniques through clear, step-by-step guides.
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