This article is one of ten reviews selected from the Annual Update in Intensive Care and
Emergency Medicine 2017. Other selected articles can be found online at http://ccforum …

A fundamental step in the successful management of sepsis and septic shock is early
empiric antimicrobial therapy. However, for this to be effective, several decisions must be …

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a life‐support modality used in patients
with refractory cardiac and/or respiratory failure. A significant resurgence in the use ECMO …

The increased prevalence of obesity presents challenges for clinicians aiming to provide
optimised antimicrobial dosing in the intensive care unit. Obesity is likely to exacerbate the …

Antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a major problem worldwide that costs 55 billion USD
annually for extended hospitalization, resource utilization, and additional treatment …

Introduction: The pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic index determining β-lactam activity is
the percentage of the dosing interval (% T) during which their free serum concentration …

Colistin has been revived, in the era of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Gram-negative
infections, as the last-resort treatment in critically ill patients. Recent studies focusing on the …

Aminoglycosides are a family of rapidly bactericidal antibiotics that often remain active
against resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections. Over the past decade, their use in …

Gentamicin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic with a small therapeutic window that is currently
used primarily as part of short-term empirical combination therapy. Gentamicin dosing …

Intensive care unit (ICU) patients with end-organ failure will require specialised machines or
extracorporeal therapies to support the failing organs that would otherwise lead to death …