Letter
Duration of antibiotic therapy in bacteraemia
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* Corresponding author: Matt P Wise mattwise@doctors.org.uk
1 Adult Critical Care, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, CF14 4XW, UK
2 Department of Anaesthesia, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, CF14 4XW, UK
Critical Care 2012, 16:403 doi:10.1186/cc10590
See related research by Havey et al., http://ccforum.com/content/15/6/R267
Published: 9 January 2012First paragraph (this article has no abstract)
Reducing duration of antibiotic therapy without a diminution in efficacy decreases cost, side effects, antibiotic related diarrhoea, and bacterial resistance. Havey and colleagues [1] reported the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis of antibiotic duration in bacteraemia and deduced short course therapy (<7 days) might be as effective as longer treatments. It is surprising given the obvious benefits and the frequency with which bacteraemia is documented in critically ill patients that there is such a paucity of randomised clinical trials (RCTs) comparing duration of therapy. Only one RCT, in neonates, had been performed in patients solely with bacteraemia. Accordingly, Havey and colleagues concluded that duration of antibiotic therapy in bacteraemia is poorly studied and would benefit from a large RCT.