Tag: antibiotics
The Paracetamol Challenge in ICU
Paracetamol is one of the most widely prescribed medications in critically ill patients. Our intensive care unit (ICU) administered 50.133 g of paracetamol in 2023 (16.230 intravenous [IV] doses, 33.825 oral doses and 78... read more
VAP Prevention in the ICU
Critically ill patients admitted to an intensive care unit for a life-threatening condition (both medical and surgical) can contract a ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). This is an infection acquired by virtue of... read more
Optimal Antibiotic Treatment Duration of Upper and Lower Respiratory Tract Infections
The available evidence for non-ICU community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) supports a short-course treatment duration of 5 days in patients who have clinically improved. Efforts... read more
Factors Affecting the Duration of Hospitalization in Urology and Nephrology Patients in the ICU
Factors affecting ICU stay length in Urology and Nephrology patients who required close monitoring and specialized medical staff were investigated. The study found a positive association between prolonged ICU stays and elevated... read more
The Easiest Way to Reduce Antibiotic Resistance Might be Shorter Duration
Antibiotic stewardship garners a lot of attention these days, but we face unique challenges to execute guidelines successfully given that we write more than 13 million antibiotic prescriptions every year in EDs. Variations... read more
Trends in Empiric Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Use for Suspected Community-Onset Sepsis in US Hospitals
Empiric treatment for suspected community-onset sepsis accounts for about half of broad-spectrum antibiotic use in US hospitals even though resistant organisms are isolated in only 7% of patients with community-onset sepsis... read more
Proposal for a 4-Level Classification System of Severe COPD Exacerbation According to Healthcare Resource Utilization
The definition of an acute exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has been modified several times the last decade in Global Initiative for COPD (GOLD) recommendations. According to the updated GOLD... read more
AKI Risk Factors in ICU Patients Using Colistin
Colistin, an antibiotic of polymyxin group, has recently been increasingly used in the treatment of multidrug resistant gram-negative bacteria. However, it has serious adverse effects such as acute kidney injury (AKI). We... read more
Omadacycline Treatment of Severe Pneumonia Complicated with ARDS During COVID-19
Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) has a significant value in the diagnosis of Chlamydia psittaci infection. Timely treatment of omadacycline can improve prognosis and provide a promising new option for the treatment... read more
Clinical Outcomes in Critically Ill COVID-19 Unvaccinated Patients Admitted to the ICU
We analyzed unvaccinated critically ill ICU patients with COVID-19 and interpreted their demographics, clinical characteristics, comorbidities, and laboratory data upon ICU admission for a better understanding of their impact... read more
Simple Blood Test Indicating Sepsis Relapse
Sepsis is often not adequately diagnosed at the early stage when it could still be potentially avoidable. In this report, we describe the dramatic hematological changes found in the blood of a sepsis survivor just after discharge... read more
Roadblock: AFib with RVR
In this paper we focus on strategies to bypass the most common pitfalls in our treatment algorithm when treating patients who present to the ED in atrial fibrillation with RVR. We all know the few medications in our toolbox... read more
Cluster of Carbapenemase-Producing Carbapenem-Resistant Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Among ICU Patients
Treatment of carbapenemase-producing carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CP-CRPA) infections is challenging because of antibiotic resistance. CP-CRPA infections are highly transmissible in health care settings because... read more
Ground-breaking New AI Technology for Severe Sepsis Rapid Identification
ASEP Medical Holdings Inc. announced the ground-breaking use of artificial intelligence (AI) to rapidly identify infections at increased risk of severe sepsis. The method was developed by the Hancock Lab, under the guidance... read more
Choosing Wisely Interventions to Reduce Antibiotic Overuse
These real-world multicomponent interventions responding to physician pay-for-performance (P4P) incentives were associated with substantial reductions in antibiotic prescriptions for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs)... read more
Plasmodium Vivax Presenting with Septic Shock and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation
Malaria has various causative agents that can have a spectrum of disease manifestations, some potentially fatal. Various species have been established as etiologies of malaria, though our understanding of the severity of... read more
Rapid Sepsis Tests Using Magnetic Nanoparticles
Qun Ren, an Empa researcher, and her team are currently developing a diagnostic procedure that can rapidly detect life-threatening blood poisoning caused by staphylococcus bacteria. Staphylococcal sepsis is fatal in up... read more
Biggest AMR dilemma: to give, or not to give antibiotics?
Sepsis (a dysregulated reaction of the body to infection with 50 million cases per year) must be treated with antibiotics as soon as it is suspected — ideally, within the first hour. Antibiotics are thus easily administered... read more
Effect of ICU Quality Control Indicators on VAP Incidence Rate and Mortality
This study highlights the association between the ICU quality control (QC) factors and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) incidence rate and mortality. The process factors rather than the structural factors need to be... read more
Hospital Acquired Infections, Multidrug Resistant (MDR) Bacteria, Alternative Approaches to Antibiotic Therapy
Bacterial resistance to known and currently used antibiotics represents a growing issue worldwide. It poses a major problem in the treatment of infectious diseases in general and hospital-acquired infections in particular.... read more
Early Identification of Intra-abdominal Infection and Sepsis
This case report illustrates the ability of the novel biomarker pancreatic stone protein (PSP) concentrations to act as a warning sign, allowing the early identification of intra-abdominal infection and post-operative peritonitis... read more
Temporal Trends and Hospital Variation in Time-to-Antibiotics Among Veterans Hospitalized with Sepsis
This cohort study across nationwide VA hospitals found that time-to-antibiotics for sepsis has declined over time. However, there remains significant variability in time-to-antibiotics not explained by patient characteristics,... read more
