What is it about?
At a time when shorter duration of antimicrobial therapy seems to be trending, we wonder whether this is a safe practice in patients with gram-negative bloodstream infections.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The study demonstrated that patients who received longer courses of antimicrobial therapy had lower mortality and fewer recurrences within 90 days than those receiving shorter courses. While many localized infections may be safely treated with shorter courses of antibiotics, this practice is questioned in patients with serious and potentially life-threatening bloodstream infections.
Perspectives
The ultimate goal of antimicrobial stewardship is to optimize antimicrobial therapy and improve patients' quality of care. The study shows that "more" is not always "less" when it comes to antimicrobial therapy. After all, if it takes 10 days to properly treat acute otitis media according to a recent randomized clinical trial, it is not shocking that it takes more than 10 days to treat potentially life-threatening gram-negative bloodstream infections.
Prof. Majdi Al-Hasan
University of South Carolina School of Medicine
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Optimal duration of antimicrobial therapy for uncomplicated Gram-negative bloodstream infections, Infection, May 2017, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s15010-017-1020-5.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
