Antibiotic policy in intensive care
Alvarez Lerma, F.
Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiologia Clinica 15(Suppl 3): 33-40
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0213-005X PMID: 9410081 Document Number: 474505
The use of antibiotics takes places by following a series of norms, which are called the antibiotics policy. The importance of their correct use is based on the influence which the antimicrobial agents may have on the development of resistance by the endogenous agents in a specific hospital or department, and on the other hand, by their capacity to predispose patients for colonization with resistant flora. This is specially important in critical patients who are hospitalized in the Intensive Medicine Department, where the use of antibiotics affects more than 50% of those admitted, and where the appearance of multiresistant pathogens is frequent. The choice of the antibiotics which are used for the empirical and/or focused treatment of the majority of infections, is the basis of the antibiotics policy. It is based on the knowledge of the there essential pillars of the problem: the pathogenic agents which are predominant in each area, the patients' characteristics which favor the appearance of specific micro-organisms, and the antibiotics which can be used for their treatment. In the hospital, the establishment diffusion, and enforcement of these rules, is conducted by a multi-disciplinary committee, in which an intensive care physician specialized in infectious pathology participates, in close collaboration with other specialists (microbiology, pharmacy, infectious diseases), all of whom are committed to the control and correct use of antibiotics.