Second consensus report on the use of antimicrobial agents in exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Aware of the importance of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a panel of experts belonging to the Spanish Society of Respiratory Medicine and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR), the Spanish Society of Chemotherapy (SEQ) and the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (SEMFyC) issued a statement of consensus in 2000 to serve as the basis for adequate antibiotic control of the disease. Three years later, in accordance with significant scientific progress made in this area, the statement has been thoroughly revised. The new paper in fact constitutes a second consensus statement on the use of antibiotics in COPD exacerbations. When several scientific associations expressed interest in joining the project and contributing to it -the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (SEMES), the Spanish Society of General Medicine (SEMG) and the Spanish Society of Rural and General Medicine (SEMERGEN)their incorporation led SEPAR and SEMFyC to change the structure of the statement and certain aspects of its content. Additionally, a new group of antibiotics, the ketolides, has joined the therapeutic arsenal. Telithromycin, the single representative of the group for the moment, can be considered not only an alternative treatment but even the drug of choice in certain clinical settings that are analyzed in the new statement. Those developments, along with others, such as the increasingly recognized action of levofloxacin against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the steady action of amoxicillin with clavulanic acid when administered at recommended doses every 8 hours, provide new antimicrobial therapeutic protocols for COPD. Finally, the statement includes a scientific analysis of other groups of antimicrobial agents (macrollides, oral cephalosporins, etc.) and guidelines for both primary care physicians and specialists to follow when prescribing them.