(from the May 2024 Annals for Educators)
Drug-resistant bacteria are an ever-present danger to patients and patient safety. Understanding whether and how clinicians use recently approved gram-negative antibiotics might help prioritize patients in future antibiotic development. This study sought to determine use patterns of recently approved gram-negative antibiotics and identify factors associated with their preferential use in patients with gram-negative infections. The study found that despite approval of 7 next-generation gram-negative antibiotics, clinicians still frequently treat resistant gram-negative infections with older, generic antibiotics with suboptimal safety–efficacy profiles. The accompanying editorial discusses the findings, explores reasons that use of these antibiotics has not been greater, and cautions that additional data are needed to determine appropriate use.
Use this and the to:
- Review the formulary at your institution to determine the availability of the antibiotics that were the focus of this study.
- Review whether testing for susceptibility to the available antibiotics is routinely performed at your institution.
- Ask a pharmacist whether there are special procedures that need to be followed when prescribing one of these newer agents.
- Request an infectious disease specialist to review the prevalence of gram-negative infections with difficult-to-treat resistance at your institution and how to identify such an infection.
Annals for Educators is a Web Exclusives feature of Annals of Internal Medicine which includes activities using selected Annals articles to help medical educators in their teaching activities.
Back to the June 2024 issue of ACP IMpact