Health News

Adding Oral to IV Antibiotics Likely Curbs Wound Infection in Elective Colorectal Surgery

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery, adding oral antibiotics (OAs) to intravenous (IV) antibiotics preoperatively reduced incisional surgical site infection (SSI) by more than 50% in a network meta-analysis. “There are differences in opinions and international guidelines on whether OAs should be given preoperatively in addition to IV antibiotics as […]

Health Problems

Appropriate Use of Antibiotics

Antibiotics can only treat illnesses caused by bacteria. However, there is a common misconception that they can also treat viral conditions, such as colds, bronchitis, and flu. This miseducation of the public, surrounding the use of antibiotics, in addition to improper prescribing from physicians, has lead to increased antibiotic resistance in the population, which threatens […]

Health News

Treatment success seen with antibiotics for uncomplicated appendicitis

(HealthDay)—For adults with uncomplicated acute appendicitis, treatment success rates ≥65 percent are seen with both oral antibiotics and combined intravenous and oral antibiotics, according to a study published online Jan. 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Suvi Sippola, M.D., from Turku University Hospital in Finland, and colleagues compared oral antibiotics to combined […]

Health News

Clinicians who prescribe unnecessary antibiotics fuel future antibiotic use

Receiving an initial antibiotic prescription for a viral acute respiratory infection—the type of infection that doesn’t respond to antibiotics—increases the likelihood that a patient or their spouse will seek care for future such infections and will receive subsequent antibiotic prescriptions, according to the findings of a study from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. […]

Health News

Short video may lower parent interest in antibiotics for child

(HealthDay)—A 90-second animated video can reduce parents’ interest in receiving antibiotics for their child’s respiratory infection, according to a study published online June 15 in The Journal of Pediatrics. Kathy Goggin, Ph.D., from Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri, and colleagues assessed the impact of a 90-second animated video on parents’ interest […]

Health News

Are antibiotics a recipe for obesity in childhood?

(HealthDay)—Children who receive multiple antibiotic prescriptions early in life may be vulnerable to obesity, two new studies suggest. In one study, researchers found that 4-year-olds who’d received more than nine antibiotic prescriptions in their lives were twice as likely to be obese as their peers with no antibiotic exposure. The second study found a similar […]

Health Problems

Hospital-wide use of high-risk antibiotics associated with more C. difficile infections

Higher hospital-wide use of four classes of antibiotics thought to increase the risk of the dangerous intestinal illness Clostridioides difficile were associated with increased prevalence of hospital-associated C. difficile, according to a study published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. For every 100 days […]