The Importance of the Adequate Empiric Antimicrobial Therapy in Nosocomial Infections Caused by Acinetobacter baumannii

Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. 2012; 14(1):67-73

Type
Journal article

Objective.

To evaluate the influence of adequate empiric antimicrobial therapy for the outcome and the length of hospitalization in patients with nosocomial infections, caused by Acinetobacter baumannii.

Materials and Methods.

The subject of the research was 42 patients with nosocomial infections, caused by A. baumannii (middle age 53.3±5 year; 61.9% were males). The evaluation of the interrelation between patient’s outcome and adequacy of the empiric antimicrobial therapy was performed using odds ratio method and χ2-criterion to prove the results. The statistical significance of the difference in the length of hospitalization between both patients’ groups (adequate/inadequate empiric therapy) was evaluated by Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Results.

The adequate initial antimicrobial therapy has significantly increased the favorable outcomes odds (OR 11.1; χ2=7.6; p<0.05). The mortality among studied patients was 50%. All died patients received inadequate empiric antibiotic therapy. The difference in the length of hospital stay between studied groups wasn’t statistically significant.

Conclusions.

The delay in the adequate antimicrobial therapy at the initial stage of treatment has produced considerable negative effect for the outcome in patients with A. baumannii-associated infections. Because of multidrug-resistance and differences in the resistance phenotypes between hospitals, the empiric antimicrobial therapy should be based on the local susceptibility data.

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