Bacterial Infections in Intensive Care Units: Epidemiological and Microbiological Aspects.
Antibiotics (Basel)
; 13(3)2024 Mar 05.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38534673
ABSTRACT
Intensive care units constitute a critical setting for the management of infections. The patients' fragilities and spread of multidrug-resistant microorganisms lead to relevant difficulties in the patients' care. Recent epidemiological surveys documented the Gram-negative bacteria supremacy among intensive care unit (ICU) infection aetiologies, accounting for numerous multidrug-resistant isolates. Regarding this specific setting, clinical microbiology support holds a crucial role in the definition of diagnostic algorithms. Eventually, the complete patient evaluation requires integrating local epidemiological knowledge into the best practice and the standardization of antimicrobial stewardship programs. Clinical laboratories usually receive respiratory tract and blood samples from ICU patients, which express a significant predisposition to severe infections. Therefore, conventional or rapid diagnostic workflows should be modified depending on patients' urgency and preliminary colonization data. Additionally, it is essential to complete each microbiological report with rapid phenotypic minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values and information about resistance markers. Microbiologists also help in the eventual integration of ultimate genome analysis techniques into complicated diagnostic workflows. Herein, we want to emphasize the role of the microbiologist in the decisional process of critical patient management.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Antibiotics (Basel)
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Italia
Pais de publicación:
Suiza