Thirty-eight percent of patients with sepsis receive inappropriate antimicrobial therapy, according to research published in PLOSOne.
Researchers performed an epidemiological analysis on data from nearly 1,500 patients diagnosed with a bloodstream infection between 2003 and 2006 across nine community hospitals.
Of the subjects' infections, 56 percent of infections were community-onset, 29 percent were community-acquired and 15 percent here hospital-onset healthcare-associated.
The most common pathogens causing infection were Staphylococcus aureus (28 percent), Escherichia coli (24 percent) and coagulase-negative Staphylococci (10 percent).
While more than one-third of patients received antimicrobial therapy incommensurate with the infecting pathogen, the percentage of inappropriate therapy differed among hospitals, ranging between 21 and 71 percent.
Researchers concluded better awareness of appropriate antimicrobial therapy is necessary to effectively combat the changing epidemiology of bloodstream infections.
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