Antimicrobial stewardship in the intensive care unit: advances and obstacles

Antimicrobial stewardship involves a multifaceted approach that strives to combat the emergence of resistance, improve clinical outcomes, and control costs by improving antimicrobial use. Therefore, stewardship is of great importance and relevance in the intensive care unit. Clinical decision support systems, biomarker-derived treatment algorithms, and improved knowledge regarding the different components of antimicrobial therapy represent some of the advances that have been made in stewardship. Yet, significant obstacles have prevented the full achievement of stewardship's goals, and approaches to confronting these obstacles should be appreciated. Clinicians should realize that antimicrobials are important therapeutic agents and strive to use them wisely.