Personalized antimicrobial therapy in critical and elderly patients

Personalized therapy in the treatment of infections is essential to  ensure optimization of antimicrobial drug levels. This strategy, together with an  understanding of the activity of these drugs, decreases the risk of bacterial  resistance and improves the drugs' safety profile. Alternative  outes of administration, such as inhalation, and the information provided by  pharmacokinetic models, are essential given the limitation of antimicrobial  activity allowed by the new antimicrobials.

A non-systematic review of the literature is presented as a way of  tackling and finding solutions to the problem. A search for high-quality articles  on the research topic was conducted. Results: A total of 370 articles were  detected, which were subjected to a further selection to discard low quality  papers by a team of five clinical pharmacists and an intensivist. Finally, 153  articles were included in the review.

The geriatric and the critical care patient population require the  administration of antimicrobials with close monitoring. The routes of  administration recommended for the first group are discouraged for the  second. The inhaled route often results in high plasma concentrations in  patients with respiratory infections. Pharmacokinetic models are a valuable tool  in the treatment of geriatric patients, who are often excluded  from clinical trials.