Study finds sepsis patients at risk of antibiotic resistance when subjected to continual broad antibiotic use

Scott Vouri
Scott Martin Vouri, Pharm.D., Ph.D., BCPG

The increasing rate of antibiotic resistance poses a significant threat to the health care system leading to increase hospitalizations, lengths of hospital stays, costs, and mortality. A study led by Besu Teshome, Pharm.D., M.Sc., BCPS, at St. Louis College of Pharmacy and co-authored by Scott Martin Vouri, Pharm.D., Ph.D., BCPG, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical outcomes and policy in the UF College of Pharmacy, was published in the journal Pharmacotherapy determined that each additional day of broad spectrum antibiotic use in patients with sepsis resulted in an increased risk of antibiotic resistance. The findings further reinforce the need for antibiotic stewardship, which aims for antibiotic de-escalation at the earliest time and highlights the need for clinicians to rethink the question “What’s one more day of antibiotics going to hurt?”