Optimised treatment of antibiotics in critically ill patients

Inappropriate use of antimicrobials is the major driver of antimicrobial resistance.

This includes unnecessary use such as treating with antibiotics when there is no infection as well as inappropriate dosing, where selection of resistance can occur when antibiotic concentrations become to low and inappropriate length of treatment.

The overall aim of the current research program is to optimise and rationalise antibiotic treatment for critically ill patients for whom today, the knowledge of when, what doses and for how long antibiotics should be given is not based on solid evidence. The research program includes several studies, that are in different phases of execution.

The BLINGIII trial will have been published at the time of evaluation of this application. Do we acheive adequate antibiotic concentrations in our critically ill patients?

This is being examined both locally and in international collaboration, by analysing blood concentrations of the most widely used antibiotics in different populations of critically ill patients.

A large randomised clinical platform trial (EMPRESS) with the research question if carbapenems are superior to piperacillin/tazobactam as empirical treatment in patients with septic shock is under planning and will soon start recruitment of patients.

During this trial emergence of antimicrobial resistance in the intervention arms will be monitored and analysed as an outcome.