Editor's Note The Joint Commission on January 9 announced that it is seeking feedback on its newly proposed requirements for antimicrobial stewardship at Medication Management (MM) standard MM.09.01.03. The requirements apply to ambulatory healthcare organizations and office-based surgery practices. The proposed requirements align with current recommendations from scientific and professional…

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Editor's Note Antimicrobial treatment of asymptomatic organisms identified in preoperative urine cultures was not associated with reductions in the risk for postoperative infections, including urinary tract infections (UTIs) and surgical site infections (SSIs), this study finds. In this analysis of 68,265 patients in 109 Veterans Affairs hospitals who had cardiac,…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on December 20 announced that fluoroquinolone antibiotics can increase the occurrence of ruptures or tears in the aorta. The FDA recommends that healthcare professionals: Avoid prescribing fluoroquinolone antibiotics to patients who have or are at risk for having an aortic aneurysm, and…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 3 issued a warning for azithromycin, saying the antibiotic should not be given long-term to prevent an inflammatory lung condition in patients with cancers of the blood or lymph nodes who undergo a donor stem cell transplant. A clinical trial…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration announced on July 10 that it was requiring labeling changes for fluoroquinolone antibiotics because they may cause significant decreases in blood sugar and mental health side effects. The labels will add that low blood sugar levels can lead to coma and make the…

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Editor's Note In this study, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) had a greater risk of transmission in the OR than methicillin-sensitive S aureus. Researchers collected 173 S aureus isolates from 274 randomly selected ORs (first and second cases of the day in each OR) at three hospitals. The isolates underwent systematic-phenotypic…

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Editor's Note In this survey, most respondents chose surgical rather than nonsurgical treatment for acute appendicitis. Of 1,728 respondents, 85.8% chose laparoscopic appendectomy, 4.9% chose open appendectomy, and 9.4% chose antibiotics alone as treatments for themselves. For their child, 79.4% chose laparoscopic appendectomy, 6.1% chose open appendectomy, and 14.5% chose…

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Editor's Note Adding oral antibiotics to mechanical bowel preparation for left colorectal cancer surgery significantly lowered the rate of surgical site infections (SSIs), but the effect was marginal in right-colon resections, this study finds. For 89 patients having left colorectal resections, the rate of SSIs was 27% with mechanical bowel…

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  Editor's Note In this study from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, patients with penicillin allergies had a 50% increased odds of developing surgical site infections (SSIs), which the researchers attributed to the second-line antibiotics administered to them.  A total of 8,385 patients who had surgery between 2010 and 2014…

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Editor's Note Surgical patients who received antibiotic prophylaxis before low-risk procedures did not have an increased risk for postoperative antibiotic-resistant infections, this study finds. Of 22,138 patients included in the analysis, 689 developed an infection within 30 days after surgery. Of these, 550 (80%) had received antibiotic prophylaxis, and 338…

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