Saturday, June 18, 2016

Shorter courses of antibiotics as good as longer courses in post-surgical infections

Contributed by Siddarth David & Dr. Tamhankar

Research paper from the University of Miami have indicated that having shorter course of antibiotic treatment is as effective as long courses in reducing post-surgical infections . The paper based on randomized controlled trial of patients with complicated intra-abdominal infection (CIAI) found that four days of antibiotic therapy worked as well as the seven currently recommended in medical practice.

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the research said there was no difference between those in the short-course and those in the long-course arm in incidence of surgical site infection, recurrent intra-abdominal infection, CDI [Clostridium difficile infection] or any other extra-abdominal infection . It also says that the findings hold true even for those at higher risk for infection making it an important consideration in an era investigating ways to curtail overuse of antibiotics at hospitals.

The findings though are of single study and is more of a hypothesis-generating nature, it still underscores the fact that antibiotic stewardship is an important part of a broad strategy to reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance. The findings of the study contributes to the growing body of literature on infection risk factors and antibiotic resistance.

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