Clinicians are trying to use empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics judiciously in patients with complicated intraabdominal infections (cIAIs), but there is room for improvement.
Doctors prescribed empiric carbapenem therapy (ECT) in only one-fourth of patients with cIAIs caused by a bacterial pathogen. However, among those who received ECT, more than 50% had no clear risk factors for resistance, and cultures eventually revealed that only 10% were infected by an organism resistant