Štefan Krajčík, Tatiana Hanisková, Peter Mikus
The incidence of pneumonia is increasing and mortality rate of hospitalised patients with pneumonia is rising. Most of patients with pneumonia are older people due to more frequent penetration of an infectious agent into lower respiratory tract and altered immunity. Clinical presentation of pneumonia can be atypical and less prominent. The prognosis of pneumonia is worse in old age. Aetiology is established in less than 50 % of older patients. The delayed start of the antibiotic treatment is associated with poorer prognosis and so the empirical treatment has to be started as soon as possible. The empirical treatment of communityacquired pneumonia (CAP) should be aimed mainly to Streptococcus pneumoniae. The empirical treatment of health care-associated pneumonia (HCAP) should be targeted at Gram-negative agents.