TO THE EDITOR—With the advent of rapid diagnostic techniques for pathogen identification, clinicians are encountering increasing windows of time when they are aware of an infecting organism’s species without yet knowing its susceptibilities [1, 2]. We believe that it is worthwhile to formally recognize these empiric windows in the management of infectious diseases (Figure 1). These windows incl...

Patients with nosocomial pneumonia caused by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia often receive inadequate empiric antibiotic therapy, potentially increasing mortality. Knowledge of the risk factors associated with S. maltophilia pneumonia may better guide the selection of empiric antibiotic therapy. Potential risk factors for S. maltophilia pneumonia were retrospectively analyzed for critically ill tr...

BACKGROUND Appropriate empiric therapy, antibiotic therapy with in vitro activity to the infecting organism given prior to confirmed culture results, may improve Staphylococcus aureus outcomes. We aimed to measure the clinical impact of appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy on mortality, while statistically adjusting for comorbidities, severity of illness and presence of virulence factors in t...

INTRODUCTION The choice of empiric therapy of acute pyelonephritis (APN) in children should be based on the knowledge of Escherichia coli (E. coli) as the most common uropathogen and its antibiotic sensitivities considering that nowadays ESBL-producing [ESBL (+)] E. coli is on the rise worldwide. OBJECTIVE To examine in vivo susceptibility of ESBL (+) E. coli to ceftriaxone (CTX), and to eval...

antibiotic guidelines have proven to be a simple and effective intervention to guide the choice of appropriate empiric antibiotic regimens. the goals of this study were to evaluate adherence to guidelines and streamlining of antibiotics. hospital records of hospitalized patients in infectious diseases ward imam khomeini hospital, tehran, iran, from may 2008 to september 2009 were reviewed. adhe...

Background. Emergence of multi-drug resistant uropathogens (MDRUTI) is making treatment of UTI more challenging. We sought to evaluate the accuracy of empiric therapy for gram-negative MDR UTI and the utility of prior culture data in improving accuracy. Methods. We performed a retrospective review of electronic health record for treatment of MDR UTI from 3 VA facilities from 2010-2013. MDR UTI ...

BACKGROUND It is unclear whether appropriate empiric antimicrobial therapy improves outcomes in patients with bacteremia due to Escherichia coli or Klebsiella. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of appropriate empiric antimicrobial therapy on in-hospital mortality and post-infection length of stay in patients with Escherichia coli or Klebsiella bacteremia while adjusting for im...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate antimicrobial use and the influence of inadequate empiric antimicrobial therapy on the outcomes of nosocomial bloodstream infections (BSIs). DESIGN Prospective cohort study with nested case-control analysis. SETTING Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). METHODS All patients weighing 2,000 g or less were enrolled. Data collection included risk factors for nosocomial BS...