Park GE, et al. - This retrospective cohort study was performed to compare ceftriaxone plus clindamycin vs piperacillin/tazobactam in terms of clinical benefit when administered as the initial empirical treatment of adults with early non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP). After excluding patients with raised risk of multidrug-resistant pathogens, experts included 89 patients who received ceftriaxone and clindamycin, and 124 patients treated with piperacillin/tazobactam. The ceftriaxone plus clindamycin group more frequently showed clinical failure in comparison with the piperacillin/tazobactam group, in the multivariate analysis. Overall, findings showed a greater effectiveness of treatment with piperacillin/tazobactam vs that with ceftriaxone plus clindamycin in patients with early NV-HAP. Recent treatment suggestions that patients with early NV-HAP should be managed empirically with broad-spectrum antibiotics were supported by the findings of this study.