Introduction to Medically Important Bacteria
Updated: 08/07/2016
Types of Therapy
- Prophylactic Therapy – treatment initiated to prevent an infection that has not yet developed
- Ex. Antibiotic “prophy” to prevent opportunistic bacterial infections
- Ex. Antibiotics while on a trip to Mexico
- Ex. Antibiotics before surgery or dental procedures to prevent bacterial endocarditis
- Empiric Therapy
- Empiric – relies solely on observation or practical experience.
- Therapy initiated to treat serious infections until test results are available; or therapy for minor infections (URI’s, UTI’s) because causative organisms are predictable and their susceptibility to available antibiotics is known
- Definitive Therapy
- Start broad spectrum antibiotics before the culture and sensitivity results are reported. When they become reported, you know what will kill the bug in vitro and can tailor the therapy making it less broad and more definitive.
- The hospital antibiogram can assist with empiric or definitive therapies.
- Antibiogram
- The cumulative results of hospital performed bacterial susceptibility testing organized into a summary table which may be used by clinicians, pharmacists, infection control personnel and microbiologists as a reference guide to community or hospital-specific resistance patterns.
