Principles of Empirical and Therapeutic Antimicrobial Therapy

The goal of this review is to discuss basic principles for the appropriate use of antibiotics in the surgical patient, largely focusing on the treatment of intra-abdominal infections. Limited pharmacologic data on common antibiotics are provided. Current reference sources and institutional guidelines should be used for specifics on dosing and administration. This review covers general principles, including treatment of surgical infections, laboratory tests, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, adverse reactions, antimicrobial resistance, and antibiotic prophylaxis in surgical patients. In addition, specific considerations of appropriate antimicrobial therapy, such as acute cholecystitis/cholangitis, pancreatitis, appendicitis, diverticulitis, Clostridium difficile, and skin and soft tissue infections are presented. Tables list high-risk factors in intra-abdominal infections, empirical antibiotic based on risk stratification for the treatment of community-acquired intra-abdominal infections, dose adjustments for obese patients, most common isolated pathogens from intra-abdominal infections, 2005–2010, with resistance trends, adaptation of Tokyo guidelines on severity scoring and recommended antimicrobial therapy, and recommended antibiotics for necrotizing soft tissue infections. This review contains 6 tables and 56 references