New antibiotics

The treatment of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB) infections in critically ill patients presents many challenges. Since an effective treatment should be administered as soon as possible, resistance to many antimicrobial classes almost invariably reduces the probability of adequate empirical coverage, with possible unfavorable consequences. In this light, readily available patient's medical history and updated information about the local microbiological epidemiology remain critical for defining the baseline risk of MDR-GNB infections and firmly guiding empirical treatment choices, with the aim of avoiding both undertreatment and overtreatment...

Since their introduction into health care and clinical practice in the early 20th century, antibiotics have revolutionized medicine. Alarmingly, these drugs are increasingly threatened by bacteria that have developed a broad diversity of resistance mechanisms. Antibiotic resistance can be transferred between bacteria, often on mobile genetic elements; be acquired from the environment; or arise through mutation because of selective pressures of the drugs themselves. There are various strategies to resistance, including active efflux of the drug from the bacterial cell, reduced permeability of the cell envelope, alteration of the drug's target within the bacterial cell, and modification or destruction of the antibiotic...

BACKGROUND: U.S. emergency department visits for cutaneous abscess have increased with the emergence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The role of antibiotics for patients with a drained abscess is unclear. METHODS: We conducted a randomized trial at five U.S. emergency departments to determine whether trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (at doses of 320 mg and 1600 mg, respectively, twice daily, for 7 days) would be superior to placebo in outpatients older than 12 years of age who had an uncomplicated abscess that was being treated with drainage...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Ceftazidime is the only anti-pseudomonal beta-lactam that has been reported to be administered by extended infusion in pediatric cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. A small pediatric pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic study has been published regarding the use of intermittent extended infusion doripenem in the treatment of an acute pulmonary exacerbation (APE) in pediatric CF patients; however, clinical use of intermittent extended infusion doripenem in pediatric CF patients has not been previously reported. We present three cases administering intermittent extended infusion doripenem in pediatric CF patients for the treatment of an APE in the case of replacing meropenem due to shortage...