Criteria of Davies and Wilson for Prophylactic Antibiotic Therapy of a Patient with Bronchiectasis

Patient selection: bronchiectasis

Criteria for selecting a patient for prophylactic antibiotic therapy - all of the following:

(1) The diagnosis of bronchiectasis has been established (with appropriate imaging studies).

(2) The patient continues to have significant chronic symptoms despite optimum general management.

(3) Any condition contributing to the bronchiectasis has been identified and treated.

(4) The patient has had 5 or more infective exacerbations requiring antibiotic therapy (oral or parenteral) within the year.

If the Pseudomonas aeruginosa is present, then the patient has not responded to nebulized antibiotic therapy or not tolerated it.

The authors used azithromycin as the prophylactic antibiotic for patients who met all of the selection criteria.