Nicolau 2001.

Methods	Prospective, open‐label, randomised controlled trial.
Participants	41 ICU patients (mean age range 46 to 56 years; 56% male) with nosocomial acquired pneumonia with a clinical suspicion of bacterial etiology. Exclusion: documented active tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, viral pneumonia, infection with a microorganism known to be resistant to study medication, or use of antimicrobial therapy with activity against suspected pathogen for longer than 48 h before enrolment without a persistently positive culture.
Interventions	Tobramycin 7 mg/kg i.v. once daily plus one of the following, depending on renal function: Creatinine clearance > 50 mL/min (normal renal function): ceftazidime 3 g i.v. over 24 h vs ceftazidime 2 g i.v given over 30 minutes q8h. Creatinine clearance 31 to 50 mL/min: ceftazidime 2.5 g i.v. over 24 h vs ceftazidime 2 g i.v. q12h. Creatinine clearance 20 to 30 mL/min: ceftazidime 2 g i.v. over 24 h versus ceftazidime 2 g i.v q24h. Mean treatment duration 16 to 18 h.
Outcomes	Clinical outcome at 14 to 21 days post‐therapy or at the time of institutional discharge (cure, improved, failure). Microbiological outcome at 14 to 21 days post‐therapy or at the time of institutional discharge (eradication, presumed eradication, persistence).
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Open label.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	Participants who received 5 or more days of therapy were considered for inclusion in the final data analysis. 6 patients were subsequently declared clinically non‐evaluable because of their short duration of therapy (5 days). 5 patients were withdrawn from continuous group and 1 patient from the intermittent group; these patients were not included in the analyses.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	"Of the 41 patients enrolled, 21 (51%) experience at least one adverse event attributable to the study agent" (pg. 501); however, total adverse events were not reported. No protocol cited.
Other bias	High risk	All patients may have received open‐label metronidazole or vancomycin, but the number of patients in each group who needed open‐label therapy was not reported. Funded by Glaxo Wellcome Inc.