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HOLSTER YOUR BROAD SPECTRUM
The study.
This study measured 2 known types of unnecessary antibiotic use for inpatient skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs): (1) use of antibiotics with a broad spectrum of activity against aerobic Gram-negative pathogens; and (2) total treatment duration >10 days. The study was a planned secondary analysis of pediatric patients in a larger retrospective cohort of patients with SSTIs managed at hospitals in Colorado (84 of the 102 pediatric patients were treated at Children’s Hospital Colorado).
The key findings.
Two-thirds of children were exposed to either unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotics, prolonged duration of antibiotic therapy, or both. This figure is probably a conservative estimate of inappropriate antibiotic therapy in the setting of an SSTI, as 40% of children in the current study had cutaneous abscesses, a proportion of whom received antibiotics. Other authors have shown that most adequately drained abscesses do not benefit from antibiotic therapy.1
Why do we care?
Management of the estimated 70 000 children hospitalized annually with SSTIs represents a tremendous antibiotic stewardship opportunity for pediatric hospitalists. The authors of this study have previously demonstrated the …
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