Administer a Dose of Antibiotic Before the Bile System is Instrumented or Manipulated Kelly Olino MD Bile ducts are normally sterile. However, in cases where the ducts become obstructed or…
Do Not Use Caspofungin or Voriconazole to Treat Yeast in the Urine Because a Very Small Amount of These Drugs are Excreted in the Urine Harjot K. Singh MD Lesia…
Have a High Threshold for Using Caspofungin and Voriconazole in Patients with Liver Disease Leo Hsiao DO Caspofungin is a member of a class of antifungals known as echinocandins. This…
Be Alert for Thrombocytopenia and Neutropenia with Linezolid Shaytone Nichols MD Linezolid is an antibiotic in the class oxazolidinones and it is effective against all Gram-positive infections. It is usually…
Treat Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus with a Minimum of 14 days of Antibiotics Iosifina Giannakikou MD There are approximately 2 million nosocomial infections in the United States each year. About 30%…
Consider Prophylactic Antibiotics when Leeches are Applied to Free Flaps Benjamin A. Mandel MD The use of leeches for medicinal purposes dates back at least 2,000 years. This practice peaked…
Consider Parvovirus B19 Infection in Patients with Anemia or Pancytopenia Jayme E. Locke MD Parvovirus B19 is a nonenveloped virus with single-stranded DNA that has a tropism for erythroid progenitor…
Consider Using Heliox in the Mechanically Vented Asthmatic Patient Anthony D. Slonim MD DrPH Therapeutic strategies in pulmonary medicine frequently employ bronchodilators or steroids to decrease airway resistance and improve…
Do not Routinely Extubate on Clinical Picture Alone Ronald W. Pauldine MD The benefits of separating patients from mechanical ventilation include decreasing the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia and ventilator-induced lung…
Treat Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia for 8 days B. Robert Gibson MD Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) refers to a pneumonia that arises after 48 hours of mechanical ventilation. Unfortunately, it is common, costly,…
