BACKGROUND Prior studies suggested that vancomycin may be inferior to β-lactams for the empiric treatment of methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) bacteremia. We assessed whether empiric therapy with β-lactams compared to vancomycin was associated with differences in clinical outcomes in patients with MSSA bacteremia. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adult inpatients wi...

BACKGROUND Optimal empiric therapy for hospitalized patients with healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP) is uncertain. METHODS We prospectively applied a therapeutic algorithm, based on the presence of risk factors for multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens in a multicenter cohort study of 445 pneumonia patients, including both community-acquired pneumonia (CAP; n = 124) and HCAP (n = 321). RE...

Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) are a significant problem in many long-term care facilities (LTCFs), as well as hospitals. It is important that practitioners identify residents at risk for infection with MDROs. The risk factor assessment should be done before selecting empiric antibiotic therapy. It is well documented that during critical illness failure to “get it right the first time” wi...

the review of literature shows that a strong relationship exists between the symptoms of otolaryngologic diseases and gastroesophageal reflux disease (gerd). it is commonly observed that an extended physical examination is needed to determine the occurrence of gerd. this non-randomized,prospective quasi-experimental study was performed to clinically verify the relationship between otolaryngolog...

TOPIC PAGE NUMBER 1. Antibiotic Therapy: Principles and Empiric Therapy ...................................................... 1-8 2. Antibiotic Therapy: Strategies for Resistant Infections ................................................. 9-20 3. Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs ..................................................................... 21-30 4. Analgesic Drugs: Opiates and Mis...

Background. Well-designed clinical studies have shown the importance of accurate empiric antibiotic coverage for critically ill patients suffering from an infection. However, these studies may lack external validity regarding the importance of early methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia due to the underrepresentation of this population. Two major clinical trials documenti...

OBJECTIVE To assess the possible change of clinical response to empiric antibiotic therapy among children survivors hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia at a teaching hospital during 1991-2001. METHODS This was a retrospective observational study. The medical records of children (aged 29 days to 12 years) with diagnosis of presumed bacterial pneumonia at hospital discharge were revi...

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of piperacillin-tazobactam (PTZ) for the treatment of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) bacteremia is controversial. We compared 14-day mortality of PTZ vs carbapenems as empiric therapy in a cohort of patients with ESBL bacteremia who all received definitive therapy with a carbapenem. METHODS Patients hospitalized between January 2007 and April 2014 with monom...

An independent panel of physicians with expert interest in urinary tract infection (UTI), including gynecologists, urologists, molecular biologists, infectologists, immunologists and epidemiologists met in a forum in Panama (Foro en Infeccciones Urinarias Recurrentes FIUR) to review diagnosis and treatment recommendations for the empiric therapy of uncomplicated UTIs taking into account antibio...