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Highly Access Review

Year in review 2009: Critical Care - infection

Stephan Harbarth* and Thomas Haustein

Author Affiliations

Infection Control Program, Geneva University Hospitals and Medical School, 4 rue G-P-G, CH-1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland

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Critical Care 2010, 14:240 doi:10.1186/cc9268

Published: 5 November 2010

Abstract

In 2009 Critical Care provided important and clinically relevant research data for management and prevention of infections in critically ill patients. The present review summarises the results of these observational studies and clinical trials and discusses them in the context of the current relevant scientific and clinical background. In particular, we discuss recent epidemiologic data on nosocomial infections in intensive care units, present new approaches to prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia, describe recent advances in biomarker-guided antibiotic stewardship and attempt to briefly summarise specific challenges related to the management of infections caused by multidrug-resistant microorganisms and influenza A (H1N1).