Search Tag: antibiotics
2024 22 Jul
The clinical course and outcomes of sepsis vary widely, but early recognition and intervention with fluids, vasoactive agents, and antimicrobials significantly reduce morbidity and mortality. However, beyond supportive care, therapeutic options for sepsis are limited. Many biomarkers are associated with sepsis severity and outcomes, but their...Read more
2024 15 Jun
Sepsis is a life-threatening complication causing nearly 1.7 million hospitalisations and 350,000 deaths annually in the U.S. Rapid and accurate diagnosis is critical, as the risk of mortality increases by up to 8% for each hour that effective treatment is delayed. Currently, the diagnostic standard relies on culture growth, which typically takes...Read more
2024 04 Jun
In 2016, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) gained unprecedented political attention at a UN high-level meeting. This gathering marked only the fourth occasion the UN convened to address a health issue, underscoring the severity of the AMR crisis. UN member states pledged to tackle AMR through a coordinated approach spanning human health, animal health,...Read more
2024 08 May
A recent study conducted by the University of Gothenburg involving over a million newborns in Sweden highlights a concerning trend: despite a notable decrease in the rate of sepsis among this group, the administration of antibiotics remains disproportionately high. The study, published in JAMA, highlights the need for a reevaluation of antibiotic...Read more
2024 26 Mar
Image caption: McMaster University's Jonathan Stokes is one of the researchers who developed a new generative AI model which can design new antibiotics to stop the spread of one of the world’s most dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria. A groundbreaking artificial intelligence model has been developed jointly by researchers from McMaster...Read more
2023 13 Mar
This article describes the application of existing and emerging biomarkers in the diagnosis and management of sepsis and pneumonia. Introduction: The Need for Biomarkers in Sepsis Sepsis is defined as a dysregulated host response to infection that results in life threatening organ dysfunction. It carries an estimated...Read more
2022 24 Nov
The two primary reasons for using antibiotics are treating and preventing bacterial infections. However, a leading cause of the overuse of antibiotics is the misdiagnosis of sepsis. Early and accurate diagnostics using point-of-care biomarkers can help address this issue. Sepsis is a dysregulated reaction of the body to infection. It is a...Read more
2022 14 Oct
An overview of antimicrobial stewardship in critical care units and emergency departments, highlighting aspects to reduce multidrug resistance focusing on antibiotic optimisation in respiratory infections and sepsis. Introduction Infections caused by resistant bacteria are associated with higher treatment costs and increased morbidity...Read more
2022 14 Oct
Severe infections by antibiotic resistant gram-negative bacteria are frequent in ICU patients. They are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Introduction Bacterial infections in patients hospitalised in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are frequent, and they elicit an increase in morbidity and mortality. The emerging development...Read more
2022 14 Oct
The need to address the problem of antimicrobial resistance, the importance of faster diagnosis of bacterial infections and an overview of rapid diagnostic testing. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is rapidly increasing on a global scale. The discovery of penicillin revolutionised the field of medicine, providing safe harbour from the most...Read more
2022 14 Oct
The importance of clearly defining sepsis, improving early recognition strategy, and increasing the understanding of innate and adaptive immune system derangements that facilitate the development of sepsis. The improvement in mortality outcomes of patients with sepsis is attributable to the early recognition of sepsis, better adherence to guidelines,...Read more
2022 16 Mar
In this article, the author provides the alphabet review of sepsis and septic shock based on personal clinical experience and choice. Sepsis and septic shock have been defined in 2016 (Singer et al. 2016) and the management of patients is framed by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines with its renewed version in 2021 (Evans et al. 2021)....Read more
2021 26 Nov
An overview of antibiotic resistance, causative factors, reasons for the lack of research and drug development in this area and potential solutions. Key Points Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health. The primary culprit of fuelling antibiotic resistance is the misuse and overuse of existing antibiotic...Read more
2021 09 Nov
The frequency of antibiotic-resistant pathogens continues to increase, resulting in higher community-acquired infections and high mortality rates in critically ill patients. In this review, the researchers critically appraise available evidence through a comprehensive literature review to investigate effective empiric antibiotic administration...Read more
2021 27 Apr
Timely delivery of antibiotics is a major cornerstone of sepsis therapy. Clinical evidence suggests that every one-hour delay in antibiotics after emergency department (ED) triage or the onset of organ dysfunction or shock could result in a 3-7% increase in the odds of a poor outcome. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) guidelines recommend antibiotic...Read more
2019 15 Dec
Ventilator-associated pneumonia carries enormous morbidity and mortality, including prolonging hospital stay and increasing the cost of healthcare. In most cases, ventilator-associated pneumonia occurs without any specific signs or symptoms. Making an accurate diagnosis is often difficult. Unlike the past, the administration of empirical antibiotics...Read more
2019 30 Aug
The controversy surrounding the efficacy of the blood infection biomarker, procalcitonin (PCT), for guidance in acute infections and sepsis treatment remains. PCT is a calcitonin precursor produced by epithelial cells when infected with bacteria and has been identified as a marker due to the protein levels’ variation upon infection initiation and cessation....Read more
2019 01 May
Antibiotics are often prescribed in the emergency department (ED) to patients with suspected infection before any definitive diagnosis can be made. However, amidst increasing antibiotic resistance, their use should be limited to those at high risk of infection or further clinical deterioration. Current tools to aid clinical decision-making include...Read more
2019 03 Apr
The French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT) and the French Society of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine (SFAR) have released guidelines on the optimisation of beta-lactam treatment in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. The two groups strongly recommend the use of personalised dosing, continuous or prolonged infusion and therapeutic...Read more
2019 14 Mar
According to results of the ABATE infection trial, daily bathing with an antiseptic soap, plus nasal ointment for patients with prior antibiotic-resistant bacteria reduced hospital-acquired infections among patients with central venous catheters and other devices. The ABATE infection trial included 340,000 patients from 53 hospitals. The study...Read more
2018 16 Oct
(I expert, I question, I answer) Have you got something to say? Visit https://healthmanagement.org/c/icu/list/blog or contact [email protected] Jean Baptiste Lascarrou Medical Intensive Care Unit, Nantes University Hospital, France @jblascarrou Epinephrine for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest “Epinephrine...Read more
2018 13 Sep
Sepsis is a common and costly condition encountered by pre-hospital and emergency department (ED) clinicians. Early antibiotics improve outcomes for septic patients. Researchers from Intermountain Medical Center in Utah led a study to investigate the relationship between septic patients’ pre-hospital level of care and ED door-to-antibiotic time. ...Read more
2018 19 Jun
Medical decision-making about antibiotic use in critically ill patients is challenging and complex. The need for antibiotic stewardship requires judicious prescription and choice of antimicrobials, as the need for effective therapy has to be put in balance with the need to limit undue selection pressure, and all this must be done in a context of...Read more
2018 01 Jun
The interventional single-centre with historical control study was conducted in a 600-bed multidisciplinary hospital to evaluate 4 years’ results of an antimicrobial stewardship programme. We found a significant reduction in average duration of courses of antimicrobial therapy, length of stay of patients with infection in ICU, mortality in patients...Read more
2018 26 Mar
The Surviving Sepsis Campaign recommends starting empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics in the initial management of patients with severe sepsis and septic shock (Rhodes et al. 2017). As a consequence, many patients receive unnecessary antibiotics, exposing them to adverse events, while others might be undertreated in spite of broad-spectrum therapy...Read more
2018 13 Mar
People especially those with critical illness develop sepsis when an infection triggers an overwhelming immune response, ultimately wreaking havoc on the immune system. Traditional approaches to sepsis therapy do not address the critical problem of patients' severely compromised immune systems. Now, a clinical trial demonstrates that a drug that revs...Read more
2017 07 Dec
As I usually do when I'm writing, first I'll throw a random fact--not so random--with a slight relation with our subject. The thing is, I lack good metaphors. Some time ago I stumbled on a fantastic article by Holloway discussing a new approach to treating multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis . The climax is: in Switzerland, England and New York, tuberculosis-related...Read more