Does fixed-duration antibiotic therapy (approximately 4 days) improve outcomes compared to a longer course in patients with intraabdominal infections who had undergone an adequate source-control procedure?
A short, fixed-duration course of antibiotics (approximately 4 days) is as effective as a longer course in patients with intraabdominal infections after adequate source control.
In patients with intraabdominal infections who had undergone an adequate source-control procedure, the outcomes after fixed-duration antibiotic therapy (approximately 4 days) were similar to those after a longer course of antibiotics (approximately 8 days) that extended until after the resolution of physiological abnormalities. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health; STOP-IT ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00657566.).
Sawyer et al. (Wed,) studied this question.