Downplay Sepsis at Your Peril

“Our study is the first randomized clinical trial in which a surrogate biochemical parameter was used to reduce the duration of antibiotic therapy in a population of critically ill patients admitted to the ICU for severe sepsis and septic shock,” wrote Pugin. “Despite the relatively short duration of treatment in bacteremic patients assigned to the PCT group, no case of recurrence of infection was observed in these patients.”

And, according to the researchers, following the PCT algorithm had another benefit — patients randomized to the PCT treatment had significantly shorter stays in the ICU than control patients: an average of three days versus five.

Customizing treatment does more than simply save hospitals money and patients precious days in the ICU, Pugin says. Overuse of antibiotics can result in antibiotic resistance. “Given the diversity of the types of infections, bacterial strains and levels of host immune defense, every infected patient should benefit from a personalized treatment, and particularly, a personalized treatment duration,” he says.