Strategies for non-responders

When improvements in symptoms of hospital-acquired pneumonia are difficult to see, an investigation should be made into whether there truly is no response to antimicrobial treatment. Non-infectious disease that results in pneumonia-like shadows needs to be excluded. In pneumonia that is unresponsive to antimicrobials, differential diagnoses must be made with consideration of causative microorganism factors, host factors and medication factors, respectively. Preferably, the dose, administration frequency and administration time for the administered antimicrobials should be established based on PK/PD.