Trial of Short-Course Antimicrobial Therapy for Intraabdominal Infection

This randomized, controlled trial involving patients with complicated intraabdominal infections and proper source control showed similar outcomes after fixed-duration antimicrobial therapy (4 days) and after a longer course (approximately 8 days). Complicated intraabdominal infection continues to be a common problem worldwide. Approximately 300,000 cases of appendicitis occur each year in the United States, 1 and at least twice that many cases of non-appendiceal infection require management. 2 Morbidity ranges from 5% among patients evaluated in broad observational studies 2 – 4 to close to 50% in some cohorts, such as the elderly or critically ill. 5 , 6 Despite the diversity of specific processes in these infections, the basic tenets of management are similar: resuscitate patients who have the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), control the source of contamination, remove most of the infected or necrotic material, . . .