Does a 5-day course of antibiotics in elderly patients with community-acquired pneumonia achieve the established criteria of clinical stability?

•Short-course (<7 days) antibiotic treatment for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is safe in young adults, according to several studies. There is a lack of data on how applicable this strategy would be in elderly patients.•We observed that in half of patients aged 75 and older, hospitalised for CAP, a 5-day antibiotic course was appropriate, according to the American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America (ATS/IDSA) criteria for clinical stability.