Subtleties in practical application of prolonged infusion of β-lactam antibiotics.
Prolonged infusion (PI) of β-lactam antibiotics is increasingly used in order to optimise antibiotic exposure in critically ill patients. Physicians are often not aware of a number of subtleties that may jeopardise the treatment. In this clinically based paper, we stress pragmatic issues, such as the importance of a loading dose before PI, and discuss a number of important practicalities that are mandatory to benefit from the pharmacokinetic advantages of prolonged β-lactam antibiotic administration.
Department of Critical Care Medicine, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: Jan.DeWaele@UGent.be.
Jan J
JJ
De Waele
Burns, Trauma and Critical Care Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Jeffrey
J
Lipman
Department of Critical Care Medicine, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, 9000 Ghent, Belgium; Department of Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Mieke
M
Carlier
Burns, Trauma and Critical Care Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
Jason A
JA
Roberts
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous / Q000379:methods; D047090:beta-Lactams / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D047090:beta-Lactams
Antibiotics continuous infusion; Prolonged infusion; β-Lactam