Are new antibiotics better than beta-lactams for non-critical inpatients with community-acquired pneumonia?

Treatment for community-acquired pneumonia in immunocompetent adults is mainly empirical. Beta-lactam antibiotics have been traditionally considered first-line therapy. New antibiotics could be more effective but the evidence is not clear until now, and its use could entail greater costs, an increase in bacterial resistance and other adverse effects. Searching in Epistemonikos database, which is maintained by screening 30 databases, we identified six systematic reviews including 36 randomized trials addressing this question. We combined the evidence using meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table following the GRADE approach. We concluded new antibiotics are not better than beta-lactam antibiotics for the treatment of non-critical inpatients with community-acquired pneumonia in relation to clinical failure or adverse effects.