title: Antimicrobial culture and susceptibility testing has little value for routine management of secondary bacterial peritonitis.
abstract: The traditional surgical practice of routinely culturing specimens from patients with community-acquired intraabdominal infections, such as appendicitis, contributes little to the management of the individual patient, either initially or later when infectious complications have developed. Instead of performing routine cultures for peritonitis, a modified approach that still facilitates hospital surveillance for microbial resistance patterns should be used.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso 79905, USA.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Dougherty
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D010538:Peritonitis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents