[Early change from intravenous to oral antibiotics: 'switch therapy']

There has been growing interest in recent years in early switch therapy: antibiotics are administered intravenously during the early phase of the infection, and then continued orally. A large number of recent prospective and randomized studies justify the application of an early switch. There is consensus in the literature about the circumstances in which an early switch is justified: (a) the patient must show clinical improvement; (b) the oral therapy should result in sufficiently high levels at the infection site; (c) the patient must be capable of taking oral medication, there must be no signs of malabsorption and interactions with food or with other drugs should be taken into account; (d) if these rules are observed, switch to oral therapy as a rule is justified after 2 to 3 days' intravenous administration. An early switch is more comfortable to the patient, eases the load on the nursing staff and considerably reduces expenses.