medical decision support medical decision support
Sign In

Recommendations for Minimizing Antibiotic Resistance

Purpose: To minimize the risk of antibiotic resistance in a patient by proper use of antibiotics.

Description

Bradley et al made a number of recommendations to minimize the development of antibiotic resistance in pediatric patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The authors are from the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.


 

Recommendations for minimizing the risk of antibiotic resistance:

(1) Limit the exposure to any antibiotic.

(2) Limit the spectrum of the antibiotic activity to the identified pathogen (minimize use of broad spectrum antibiotics).

(3) Use the proper dose of antibiotic to ensure that a minimum effective concentration (MEC) of the antibiotic is present at the site of infection.

(4) Use the antibiotic for the shortest effective duration.

 

Additional recommendations not given in the reference:

(1) Repeated use of the same antibiotic may select for a resistant strain.

(2) It is important to identify the pathogen if possible and to perform susceptibility testing.

(3) Antibiotics should not be used if not appropriate.

 


To read more or access our algorithms and calculators, please log in or register.

Specialty

Objective

ICD-10