Weekly Comment – 15 Aug 16 : Tailoring antibiotic dosage to fight superbugs
August 15, 2016
IF CURRENT trends continue, by
2050 superbugs will kill 10 million
people every year.
Critically ill patients are particularly
vulnerable, because they often
have augmented kidney function.
This means they eliminate
antibiotics faster from the body,
which can result in antibiotic
concentrations that are too low to
combat the bacterial infection.
Research that a group of us at
the Monash Centre for Medicine
Use and Safety conducted in
collaboration with the University of
Queensland’s Burns, Trauma and
Critical Care Research Centre has
revealed that tailoring antibiotic
treatment regimens to individual
patients’ needs and utilising
higher-than-standard doses of safe
antibiotics where necessary can be
an effective response.
Where this cannot be achieved
with giving a single antibiotic,
optimised antibiotic combination
regimens may need to be
employed.
Our research utilised a laboratory
model to expose bacteria to
the rising and falling blood
concentrations of antibiotics
over time that occur in critically
ill patients with a wide range of
kidney functions. In some cases,
the traditional dose resulted in
increased resistance that would
worsen the problem in a patient,
while only the highest approved
dose was effective.
The study was funded by the
National Health and Medical
Research Council and published
in the Journal of Antimicrobial
Chemotherapy.
This
week’s contributor
is Dr Cornelia
Landersdorfer,
Monash Centre for
Medicine Use and Safety.
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