Benefits of osteopathic manipulative treatment for hospitalized elderly patients with pneumonia.

While osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is thought to be beneficial for patients with pneumonia, there have been few clinical trials--especially in the elderly. The authors' pilot study suggested that duration of intravenous antibiotic use and length of hospital stay were promising measures of outcome. Therefore, a larger randomized controlled study was conducted. Elderly patients hospitalized with acute pneumonia were recruited and randomly placed into two groups: 28 in the treatment group and 30 in the control group. The treatment group received a standardized OMT protocol, while the control group received a light touch protocol. There was no statistical difference between groups for age, sex, or simplified acute physiology scores. The treatment group had a significantly shorter duration of intravenous antibiotic treatment and a shorter hospital stay.