Prognosis and Decisions in Pneumonia

At the turn of the century, Sir William Osler described pneumonia as “the captain of the men of death.” Pneumonia remains a major cause of death worldwide, accounting for an estimated 5 million deaths per year. In developed countries, the antimicrobial era has brought a 66 percent reduction in the crude mortality rate associated with the disease, but pneumonia remains the most frequent infectious cause of death and the sixth leading cause overall in the United States.1 Over the past three decades there have been more than 100 reports on the prognosis of community-acquired pneumonia.2 A decade ago a study . . .