Articles related to ANTIBIOTICS

The authors present the findings of a large retrospective cohort study that used national data from the SEER-Medicare-linked database to better understand the relationship between antibiotics and PDAC survival. They discovered that perichemotherapy antibiotics were associated with improved survival in patients treated with first-line gemcitabine but not fluorouracil, implying that perichemotherapy antibiotic treatment may have a role in patients with metastatic PDAC receiving gemcitabine. Prospective studies on the effect of perichemotherapy antibiotics with high pancreatic penetration and gram-negative coverage on survival in diverse populations of patients with metastatic PDAC treated with gemcitabine are recommended.

The shortage is driven by increased prescribing due to bacterial infection coexisting with RSV infection, and in cases where it is not possible to tell if the patient is experiencing a bacterial or viral URI. Substitute antibiotics to consider include cephalosporins and amoxicillin-clavulanate.

Although many organizations advise reducing the range of antibiotic therapy for hospitalized patients in light of laboratory findings, some are challenging the validity of the practice. One expert argued that there are insufficiently strong data on spectrum de-escalation to determine whether it improves outcomes.

A commentary with perspective on the clinical practice implications of the Comparison of Outcomes of Antibiotic Drugs and Appendectomy (CODA) trial, which demonstrated short-term noninferiority of antibiotic therapy vs. surgical therapy for patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis.

New guidelines recommend that internists treat uncomplicated diverticulitis in an outpatient setting without the use of antibiotics. The new guidelines on diagnosis and management of patients with diverticulitis have been published by the Annals of Internal Medicine. And they are stirring up debate among physicians.

In practice, “standard” duration of antibiotic therapy is often based on archaic studies. Newer evidence shows that shorter durations are often a better choice and that antibiotic resistance is more likely to develop with longer durations of therapy. Here are the recommendations applied to four commonly treated infections.