If emerging evidence is inconsistent with a diagnosis of pneumonia, antibiotics should be discontinued and the diagnosis should be discarded.
The potential upsides of the recommendation seemed more important to patients than the potential downsides.
Curr Opin infect Dis 2013, 26: 140-150.
Ann Intern Med 1995; 123:518-27.
Randomized trial of combination versus monotherapy for the empiric treatment of suspected ventilator-associated pneumonia.
A more fruitful approach is to consider all possibilities e.