Abstract

Pneumonia is the commonest potentially serious infection seen in general practice and acute hospital medicine,¹ and remains an important cause of death in previously healthy adults. The range of organisms known to cause pneumonia, and the variety of antibiotics available to treat it, has steadily increased. This article offers some guidelines for the management of pneumonia, specifically in patients with previously healthy lungs. A difficulty is that even the most valuable studies have included some patients with pre-existing respiratory disease.