Commentary
A week seems to be weak: tailoring duration of antibiotic treatment in Gram-negative ventilator-associated pneumonia
1 Critical Care Centre, Corporación Sanitaria Universitaria Parc Tauli, Sabadell University Hospital, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias, Parc Taulí, 1 08208 Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain
2 Servei de Pneumologia, Institut Clinic del Tòrax, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias, University of Barcelona, Villarroel 170, 08036, Barcelona, Spain
Critical Care 2012, 17:106 doi:10.1186/cc11899
See related research by Kollef et al., http://ccforum.com/content/16/6/R218
Published: 21 January 2013Abstract
The optimal length of antimicrobial therapy has not been extensively studied for a great majority of infections and, in critically ill patients affected by ventilator-associated pneumonia, is a persisting and unsolved issue confronting clinicians. The integration of biomarkers, clinical judgment, and microbiologic eradication might help to define a shorter duration for some ventilator-associated pneumonia episodes due to non-fermenting Gram-negative bacilli, but until these strategies are implemented in clinical practice for individualizing antibiotic treatment, a short-course duration does not seem to tailor a long benefit.
