Antibiotic guidelines: improved implementation is the challenge

Watson, D Ashley R

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb04544.x

Topics

Infectious diseases physicians, clinical microbiologists and hospital pharmacists tend to have a love–hate relationship with the antibiotic ceftriaxone and its stablemate cefotaxime. These potent third-generation cephalosporins have an important place in every Australian hospital formulary, and boast numerous entries in the current edition of Therapeutic guidelines: antibiotic (AG).1 Third-generation cephalosporins (3GCs) are the antibiotics of choice for several life-threatening infections including bacterial meningitis. They are convenient to administer and are among the safest antibiotics available. Yet, these drugs have become the bête noire of hospital epidemiologists. So, what's the problem?

Infectious Diseases Unit, The Canberra Hospital and Canberra Clinical School, Canberra, ACT.

Correspondence: ashley.watson@act.gov.au

Competing interests:

None.

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