Mycoplasma Infections Treatment & Management

  • Author: Ken B Waites, MD; Chief Editor: Burke A Cunha, MD   more...
 
Updated: Aug 19, 2011
 

Medical Care

  • Ambulatory care versus hospitalization
    • The choice of outpatient management versus hospitalization for persons with community-acquired pneumonia depends on the clinical syndrome and not the organism, largely because the microbiologic diagnosis is often unavailable when the physician must make these decisions.
    • Professional organizations of physicians and managed care organizations have developed management algorithms that include decision trees for diagnostic studies and management, including specifications of antimicrobial agents to be used. These guidelines vary somewhat, but, in general, the decision to hospitalize a patient depends on an assessment of the following:
      • The person's ability to tolerate and comply with oral medication
      • Whether the patient appears hypoxic or toxic to the extent that the physician suspects a bacteremic pneumonia
      • Whether the person is immunosuppressed
    • Relatively few patients with M pneumoniae pneumonia require hospitalization based on these criteria.
  • Antimicrobials
    • Experts formerly believed that mycoplasmal respiratory tract infections were entirely self-limited and that antimicrobial treatment was not indicated.
    • Appropriate antimicrobial therapy shortens the symptomatic period and hastens radiological resolution of pneumonia and recovery, even though patients may shed organisms for several weeks.
    • When treating community-acquired pneumonia, physicians usually must provide empiric coverage for several different bacterial agents that may be responsible because the microbiologic diagnosis is seldom available at the initiation of treatment. Fortunately, many of the drugs of choice for treating M pneumoniae provide broad-spectrum coverage for other organisms.
Proceed to Medication
 
 
Contributor Information and Disclosures
Author

Ken B Waites, MD  Director, UAB Diagnostic Mycoplasma Laboratory, Professor, Department of Pathology, Division of Laboratory Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Ken B Waites, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Society of America

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Specialty Editor Board

Maria D Mileno, MD  Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Maria D Mileno, MD is a member of the following medical societies: Alpha Omega Alpha, American College of Physicians, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Infectious Diseases Society of America, International Society of Travel Medicine, and Sigma Xi

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD  Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy; Editor-in-Chief, Medscape Drug Reference

Disclosure: Medscape Salary Employment

Charles V Sanders, MD  Edgar Hull Professor and Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine, Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Louisiana State University School of Medicine at New Orleans; Medical Director, Medicine Hospital Center, Charity Hospital and Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans; Consulting Staff, Ochsner Medical Center

Charles V Sanders, MD is a member of the following medical societies: Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, Alpha Omega Alpha, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of University Professors, American Clinical and Climatological Association, American College of Physician Executives, American College of Physicians, American Federation for Medical Research, American Foundation for AIDS Research, American Geriatrics Society, American Lung Association, American Medical Association, American Society for Microbiology, American Thoracic Society, American Venereal Disease Association, Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Association of American Medical Colleges, Association of American Physicians, Association of Professors of Medicine, Infectious Disease Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Louisiana State Medical Society, Orleans Parish Medical Society, Royal Society of Medicine, Sigma Xi, Society of General Internal Medicine, Southeastern Clinical Club, Southern Medical Association, Southern Society for Clinical Investigation, and Southwestern Association of Clinical Microbiology

Disclosure: Baxter International and Johnson & Johnson Royalty Other

Eleftherios Mylonakis, MD  Clinical and Research Fellow, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital

Eleftherios Mylonakis, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of Physicians, American Society for Microbiology, and Infectious Diseases Society of America

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Chief Editor

Burke A Cunha, MD  Professor of Medicine, State University of New York School of Medicine at Stony Brook; Chief, Infectious Disease Division, Winthrop-University Hospital

Burke A Cunha, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Chest Physicians, American College of Physicians, and Infectious Diseases Society of America

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

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