Proteolytic enzymes as adjuncts to antimicrobial prophylaxis of contaminated wounds.

When a tissue is injured, its vessels exhibit a marked increase in vascular permeability. Blood proteins, including fibrinogen, traverse the vessel walls and lead to the development of a surface coagulum. This inflammatory response continues until primary closure of the wound edges is accomplished. The thickness of the surface coagulum is roughly proportional to the time interval between wounding and closure. This coagulum encompasses the surface contaminants, preventing contact with either topical or systemic antibiotics. The presence of this surface coagulum limits the time in which antibiotic prophylaxis is effective. At three hours after injury, antimicrobial prophylaxis of contaminated wounds has no therapeutic value. Hydrolysis of the protein coagulum by proteolytic enzymes enhances the activity of the antibiotic in experimental wounds. The success of proteolytic enzymes as adjuncts to delayed antibiotic treatment can be correlated with the clot lysis activity of the enzymes in vitro. Travase, the most potent fibrinolytic enzyme, is the most effective adjunct to delayed antibiotic therapy of contaminated wounds. In contrast, the active enzymes found in Elase, which exhibit no significant clot lysis activity in vitro, do not potentiate the activity of antibiotics in wounds subjected to a delay in treatment. Travase prolongs the period of effective topical antibiotic action for at least eight hours in experimental contaminated wounds. The therapeutic merit of Travase is also apparent when the antibiotic is administered systemically. Travase shows promise as an adjunct to a variety of antibiotics that are effective against both gram-positive and gram-negative organisms. The results of these experimental studies support our belief that clinical studies support our belief that clinical studies should now be initiated to test the therapeutic value of Travase as an adjunct to antibiotics in heavily contaminated wounds subjected to an unavoidable delay in treatment

Online commentary during the physical examination: a communication tool for avoiding inappropriate antibiotic prescribing?

A previously identified communication behavior, online commentary, is physician talk that describes what he/she is seeing, feeling, or hearing during the physical examination of the patient. The investigators who identified this communication behavior hypothesized that its use may be associated with successful physician resistance to perceived or actual patient expectations for inappropriate antibiotic medication. This paper examines the relationship between actual and perceived parental expectations for antibiotics and physician use of online commentary as well as the relationship between online commentary use and the physician's prescribing decision. We conducted a prospective observational study in two private pediatric practices. Study procedures included a pre-visit parent survey, audiotaping of study consultations, and post-visit surveys of the participating physicians. Ten pediatricians participated (participation rate=77%) and 306 eligible parents participated (participation rate=86%) who were attending sick visits for their children with upper respiratory tract infections between October 1996 and March 1997. The main outcomes measured were the proportion of consultations with online commentary and the proportion of consultations where antibiotics were prescribed. Two primary types of online commentaries were observed: (1) online commentary suggestive of a problematic finding on physical examination that might require antibiotic treatment ('problem' online commentary), e.g., "That cough sounds very chesty"; and (2) online commentary that indicated the physical examination findings were not problematic and antibiotics were probably not necessary ('no problem' online commentary), e.g., "Her throat is only slightly red". For presumed viral cases where the physician thought the parent expected to receive antibiotics, if the physician used at least some 'problem' online commentary, he/she prescribed antibiotics in 91% (10/11) of cases. Conversely, when the physician exclusively employed 'no problem' online commentary, antibiotics were prescribed 27% (4/15) of the time (p = 0.07). Use of 'no problem' online commentary did not add significantly to visit length. 'No problem' online commentary is a communication technique that may provide an effective and efficient method for resisting perceived expectations to prescribe antibiotics. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd

Evaluation of the antibiotic effect of treatment of maxillary sinusitis.

As the effect of antibiotic treatment of maxillary sinusitis has been questioned, the elimination of bacteria from sinus secretions was studied during antibiotic treatment. Penicillin V, azidocillin, tetracycline or doxycycline was administered to 54 patients with maxillary sinusitis. Samples of sinus secretion were aspirated both before treatment and 2-3 days after the onset of treatment. When the antibiotic concentration was below the upper limit of MIC for sensitivity group 1, bacterial growth was present in practically all samples. When the antibiotic concentration equalled or was above this limit, there was no bacterial growth in about half of the samples. A prerequisite for antibiotic effect--elimination of bacteria--is that the antibiotic concentration is well above the MIC of the bacteria at the site of infection. The choice between bactericidal or bacteriostatic antibiotics appeared unimportant. Bacterial survival in the maxillary sinus despite a high antibiotic concentration in the sinus illustrates that MIC values determined in the laboratory do not always mirror the sensitivity of bacteria to antibiotics in vivo

Antibiotic prescribing patterns for pediatric inpatients with acute respiratory tract infection

BACKGROUND: Children with acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) represent an important target group for efforts aimed at reducing unnecessary antibiotic use. OBJECTIVE: To present the epidemiological data and evaluate the effect of clinical, laboratory, radiological and microbiological data on the decision to prescribe antibiotics to pediatric patients with ARTI as well as to seek criteria that would justify antibiotic use. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective review was made of the clinical histories of 147 previously healthy children, consecutively admitted to our hospital with ARTI for 1 year (May 1996-April 1997). Patients were divided in two groups: those not treated with antibiotics (n = 92) and those treated (n = 55). Data from the two groups were compared with a statistical computer program (R-Sigma). RESULTS: Of the 147 patients studied, mean age was 2.5 years (range 0-14 years) and 85 (58%) males. One-hundred-and-five patients (72%) had previously been attended to in the emergency room, and 45 patients (30%) had been treated with antibiotics. Upper respiratory tract infection was diagnosed in 81 patients (54%), bronchitis in 28 (18%), bronchiolitis in 23 (15%) and pneumonia in 15 (10%). Ninety-seven patients (66%) had viral infection and only two (1%) had bacterial infection. Syncytial respiratory virus was isolated in 41 patients (28%) and adenovirus in 30 (20%). In the untreated group, the longer duration of symptoms before admission, lymphocytosis, clinical diagnosis of bronchiolitis and normal thorax X-ray, were statistically significant. In the treated group, fever, leukocytosis, neutrophilia and a diagnosis of pneumonia were statistically significant. Length of stay was longer in this group than in the untreated group. CONCLUSIONS: It is difficult to prescribe antibiotics on the basis of bacteriologic data. Laboratory, analytic and radiological data can be helpful in the rational use of antibiotics