In the era of growing antimicrobial resistance, there is a concern about the effectiveness of first-line
antibiotics such as
ampicillin in children hospitalized with community-acquired
pneumonia. In this study, we describe
antibiotic use and treatment outcomes among under-five children with community-acquired
pneumonia admitted to a tertiary care public hospital in Nepal from 2017 to 2019. In this cross-sectional study involving secondary analysis of hospital data, there were 659 patients and 30% of them had a history of prehospital
antibiotic use. Irrespective of prehospital
antibiotic use,
ampicillin monotherapy (70%) was the most common first-line treatment provided during hospitalization followed by
ceftriaxone monotherapy (12%). The remaining children (18%) were treated with various other
antibiotics alone or in combination as first-line treatment. Broad-spectrum
antibiotics such as
linezolid,
vancomycin, and
meropenem were used in less than 1% of patients. Overall, 66 (10%) children were required to switch to second-line treatment and only 7 (1%) children were required to switch to third-line treatment. Almost all (99%) children recovered without any sequelae. This study highlights the effectiveness of
ampicillin monotherapy in the treatment of community-acquired
pneumonia in hospitalized children in a non-intensive care unit setting.