BACKGROUND Pneumonia is the eighth leading cause of death in Canada. Use of guideline-concordant therapy tempers the development of resistance, decreases health care costs, and reduces morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to optimize the treatment of patients with pneumonia under hospitalist care by focusing on best practice and local antibiogram data. The objecti...

clindamycin is a lincosamide antibiotic which is approved for the treatment of anaerobic, streptococcal and staphylococcal infections. there has been an increased interest in the use of clindamycin since it achieves high intracellular levels in phagocytic cells, high levels in bone and appears to have an antitoxin effect against the toxin elaborating strains of streptococci and staphylococci. c...

competent to speak on hospitaf advances in Ulster without reference to this book; it should be in every doctor's library. It is an accurate unbiased survey of the first 75 years of this hospital when finances had to be found and fought for and when as yet the State had no control. Finally a book is often enhanced by its format, and Dr. Calwell is to be congratulated on the lay out and his choic...

Although the use of ‘magnifying glasses’ was recorded in the first century AD by Pliny the elder, the forerunner of the modern microscope was only developed in 1590 when a pair of Dutch spectacle makers, Zaccharias Jannsen and his son, discovered that pairing lenses allowed objects to be magnified. Galileo, on hearing of this discovery, experimented and outlined the science of lenses and produc...

Neonatal meningitis is a serious disease with significant mortality and morbidity. Its signs and symptoms are subtle, non-specific, atypical or absent. Cephalohaematoma is frequent in newborns and complications are uncommon, including local infection after haematogenous spread in the setting of bacteraemia or meningitis with a possibility of osteomyelitis, epidural abscess and subdural empyema. ...

Antibiotic lock therapy (ALT) for the prevention and treatment of catheter-related bloodstream infections is a simple strategy in theory, yet its real-world application may be delayed or avoided due to technical questions and/or logistical challenges. This review focuses on these latter aspects of ALT, including preparation information for a variety of antibiotic lock solutions (ie, aminoglycos...

The purpose of our survey is to analyse the clinical approach used to prevent and treat cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) infections in Europe. The survey involves high-volume implanting centres. According to the survey the incidence of CIED infections shows a slight decrease in most centres and is substantially under 2% in the majority of centres interviewed. However, there a...

Bacteria may exist in nature in a planktonic form or in biofilms that allow bacteria to survive in an unfriendly microenvironment. Biofilm is a structured community of bacteria hidden in a self-produced polymeric matrix of polysaccharides, proteins, and extracellular DNA. Biofilm-growing bacteria cause chronic infections, which are characterized by persisting inflammation and tissue damage (chr...

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common and painful human illness that, unfortunately not responsive to commonly used antibiotics in current practice. The role of fosfomycin and nitrofurantoin in the era of growing bacteria resistance has been widely discussed. In this study, we aimed to know the local antimicrobial susceptibilities, fosfomycin and nitrofurantoin susceptibility in particular,...

A great deal of research is ongoing in the area of tissue engineering (TE) for bone regeneration. A possible improvement in restoring damaged tissues involves the loading of drugs such as proteins, genes, growth factors, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory drugs into scaffolds for tissue regeneration. This mini-review is focused on the combination of the local delivery of antibiotic agents with ...