The fate of orally available antimicrobials

Introduction / objectives Changing an antimicrobial treatment regimen has shown to influence the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance, with regimen consisting of the dose, the treatment interval, the duration of therapy, and the route of administration of the drug. For concentration dependent antimicrobials there is substantial evidence to encourage the use of a high dose, with regular treatment interval and short course to minimise the risk for the selection of resistant mutants. However, in contrast with these first three aspects of the antimicrobial treatment regimen, little attention is currently paid to the influence of route of administration for the probability of selection and spread of resistant strains.