Aim: To identify the baseline characteristics associated with suppurative complications in children with community‐acquired primary pneumonia.
Methods: A retrospective study included all children from 28 days to 15 years old, who presented with community‐acquired pneumonia at two French hospitals from 1995 to 2003. Complicated pneumonia was defined by the presence of empyema and/or lung abscess.
Results: Of 767 children with community‐acquired pneumonia, 90 had suppurative complications: 83 cases of pleural empyema and seven cases of lung abscess. The mean prevalence of complicated pneumonia was 3% during the 1995–1998 period, and then steadily increased following a linear trend to reach 23% in 2003. Children with complicated pneumonia were older and had a longer symptomatic period preceding hospitalization. They were more likely to receive antibiotics, especially aminopenicillins (p < 0.01), and nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs, especially ibuprofen (p < 0.001). In multivariable analysis, ibuprofen was the only preadmission therapy that was independently associated with complicated pneumonia [adjusted OR = 2.57 (1.51–4.35)].
Conclusion: This study confirms an association between the use of prehospital ibruprofen and suppurative pneumonic complications.