Antimicrobial Resistance's Clinical Impact: Finding New Solutions with Traditional Methods

[摘要] Patients infected with Multi Drug-Resistant (MDR) pathogens have a higher mortality rate than those infected with sensitive pathogens. Inone study of ICU infection, the presence of infection caused by Acinetobacter species, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, or methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus increased the risk of mortality. Possible explanations for this observation include the use of initially improperantibiotic therapy due to the presence of bacterial resistance; the possibility that bacterial resistance is simply a marker of severe dysthymiadisease, and that poor outcomes are the result of the comorbid disease; and the presence of bacterial resistance as a marker of severediagnosable disease; or increased virulence and severity of infection because of the presence of multidrug resistance itself. Knowing themechanism of increased mortality has important implications is prevention of infection the only way to reduce the mortality of MDRinfection or can we still improve outcomes if we optimize therapy when MDR infection is recognized.

[学科分类] 药理学