RT Book, Section
A1 Metjian, Talene A.
A1 Gerber, Jeffrey S.
A2 Zaoutis, Lisa B.
A2 Chiang, Vincent W.
SR Print(0)
ID 1146118028
T1 Empirical Treatment of Bacterial Infections
T2 Comprehensive Pediatric Hospital Medicine, 2e
YR 2017
FD 2017
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071829281
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1146118028
RD 2024/04/24
AB The  initiation  of  antibiotic  therapy  is  a  common  challenge  for  clinicians  caring  for  hospitalized  patients.  Many  factors  influence  the  choice  of  whether  to  start  antibiotics,  when  to  start,  and  which  agent  or  agents  to  employ.  Often  the  decision  to  initiate  antibiotics  and  to  select  appropriate  antibiotic  agents  happens  before  confirmation  of  the  presence  of  a  treatable  infection  and  before  its  precise  location,  severity,  and  specific  infectious  cause  is  identified.  Some  of  the  factors  to  consider  include  the  likelihood  of  a  treatable  infection  actually  being  present,  the  risks  of  an  untreated  infection,  the  odds  of  predicting  the  correct  pathogen  involved,  the  chances  of  resolution  without  antibiotic  therapy,  and  the  need  to  identify  the  organism  definitively.  Other  antibiotic-related  factors  include  the  toxicity  profile  and  the  pharmacodynamic  parameters  of  the  drug.