Routine diagnostic studies can locate the source of gastrointestinal bleeding in the vast majority of persons. In approximately 5 percent of persons, however, the source remains obscure despite sophisticated studies. Our inability to localize the source of bleeding in these individuals illustrates the limits of available diagnostic technology. In an elderly patient who requires repeated diagnos...

From year to year, it is important to get an overview of the occurrence of causative agents in febrile neutropenic patients to determine the empiric treatment. Thus our aims were to evaluate a four-year period regarding the prevalence of bloodstream infections and the most important causative agents. During this period, 1,361 patients were treated in our hematology ward because of various hemat...

Evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of established fungal infections in the adult haematology/oncology setting were developed by a national consensus working group representing clinicians, pharmacists and microbiologists. These updated guidelines replace the previous guidelines published in the Internal Medicine Journal by Slavin et al. in 2004. The guidelines are pathogen-specific and ...

BACKGROUND Infectious complications in tissue expander (TE) breast reconstruction can be devastating and costly. Therefore, to optimize care, we examined patient's demographics, microbiology of TE infections, and the efficacy of empiric antimicrobial regimens and thereafter generated an algorithm for the treatment of these complex infections. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed all patients w...

BACKGROUND Concern for MRSA in patients presented to the hospital with pneumonia may be overestimated leading to excessive prescribing of empiric anti-MRSA therapy. This study aims to identify at-risk patients and treatment outcomes. METHODS Adults hospitalized during 2005-2011 with pneumonia diagnosed within 48 h of admission were included. Medical charts were retrospectively reviewed for re...

Neutropenic patients continue to be at increased risk for developing serious infections despite substantial advances in supportive care. Epidemiologic shifts occur periodically and need to be detected early because they influence prophylactic, empiric, and specific therapy strategies. Although effective in preventing bacterial and some fungal infections, prophylaxis must be used with caution be...

OBJECTIVE Uncomplicated urinary tract infection (uUTI) is a common reason for antibiotic treatment in primary health care. Due to the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant uropathogens it is crucial to use the most appropriate antibiotics for first-choice empiric treatment of uUTI. Particularly, it is important to avoid antibiotics associated with a high rate of antimicrobial resistance...

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...

The emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) uropathogens is making the treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs) more challenging. We sought to evaluate the accuracy of empiric therapy for MDR UTIs and the utility of prior culture data in improving the accuracy of the therapy chosen. The electronic health records from three U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facilities were retrospectively r...