Collaborative Antimicrobial Stewardship for Surgeons.

Antimicrobial stewardship efforts that include surgeons rely on healthy and open communications between surgeons, infectious diseases specialists, and pharmacists. These efforts most frequently are related to surgical prophylaxis, the management of surgical infections, and surgical critical care. Policy should be based on best evidence and timely interactions to develop consensus on how to develop appropriate guidelines and protocols. Flexibility on all sides leads to increasingly strong relationships over time.

Analysis of a new best-practice advisory on time to initiation of antibiotics in surgical intensive care unit patients with septic shock.

BACKGROUND: Early administration of antibiotics in septic shock is associated with decreased mortality. Promptly identifying sepsis and eliciting a response are necessary to reduce time to antibiotic administration. METHODS: A best-practice advisory was introduced in the surgical intensive care unit to identify patients with septic shock and promote timely action. The best-practice advisory is triggered by blood culture orders and vasopressor administration within 24 h. The nurse or provider who triggers the alert may send an automatic notification to the intensive care unit resident, clinical pharmacist, and charge nurse, prompting bedside response and closer evaluation. Patients who met best-practice advisory criteria in the surgical intensive care unit from May 2016 through March 2017 were included. Outcomes included changes in antibiotics within 24 h, response to best-practice advisory, and time-to-antibiotics. Time-to-antibiotics was compared between a retrospective pre-intervention period and a six-month prospective post-intervention period defined by launch of the new best-practice advisory in September 2016. Data were analyzed by chi square, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis. RESULTS: During the first six months of best-practice advisory implementation, 191 alerts were triggered by 97 unique patients. Alert notification was transmitted in 79 best-practice advisories (41%), with pharmacist bedside response in 53 (67%). New antibiotics were started within 24 h following 83 best-practice advisories (43%). There was a trend toward decreased time-to-antibiotics following implementation of the best-practice advisory (7.4 vs. 4.2 h, p = 0.057). Compared to the entire cohort, time-to-antibiotics was shorter when the team was notified and when a pharmacist responded to the bedside (4.2 vs. 1.6 vs. 1.2 hours). CONCLUSIONS: A new best-practice advisory has been effective at eliciting a rapid response and reducing the time-to-antibiotics in surgical intensive care unit patients with septic shock. Team notification and pharmacist response are associated with decreased time-to-antibiotics.

Usefulness of laboratory values in predicting effectiveness of recombinant factor VIIa in surgical patients with bleeding.

PURPOSE: The results of a study to determine whether certain laboratory values can predict the effectiveness of recombinant factor VIIa (rFVIIa) therapy to control postoperative bleeding in surgical patients are presented. METHODS: In a retrospective observational study at a large university hospital, the records of all adult patients on the cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) and general or trauma surgery (GTS) units who received rFVIIa for treatment-refractory nonsurgical bleeding episodes (an off-label use) during a 17-month period were reviewed. Collected data included blood product requirements before and after administration of rFVIIa, selected periadministration laboratory values (e.g., International Normalized Ratio, platelet count, arterial pH, fibrinogen concentration), 24-hour and 30-day mortality, and documented adverse thrombotic events. RESULTS: Among the 18 GTS and 32 CTS patients who received rFVIIa during the study period, hemostasis (as defined according to 12- and 24-hour transfusion requirements) was achieved in 50% of patients in both groups. Two of the evaluated laboratory values were found to be predictive of reduced rFVIIa effectiveness. Hemostasis was not achieved in any patient with an arterial pH of ≤7.1 or a fibrinogen concentration of <100 mg/dL. The study results did not support the hypothesis that a platelet count of <50,000 cells/L is associated with reduced effectiveness of rFVIIa therapy for the studied indication. Adverse thrombotic events occurred in 14 patients (28%) after rFVIIa administration. CONCLUSION: CTS and GTS patients with bleeding episodes and an arterial pH of ≤7.1 or a fibrinogen concentration of <100 mg/dL were not likely to achieve hemostasis after rFVIIa therapy.

Antibiotics in the intensive care unit: focus on agents for resistant pathogens.

Antibiotic resistance is increasing faster than the drug industry can develop and market new antibiotics. Medical personnel commonly must deal with the resistant gram-positive pathogens including MRSA and VRE, in addition to the problem gram-negative bacteria, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, and ESBL producing strains of Klebsiella and E. coli. Clinicians should be familiar with treatment strategies for these resistant pathogens. Because of the lack of novel agents to treat resistant infections, clinicians must use antibiotics judiciously and appropriately to limit further development of resistance. Early, appropriate cultures of the blood, urine, sputum and suspected source, ideally obtained before antibiotic initiation, allow for future de-escalation of antibiotics, or the decision to discontinue antibiotics.