Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Oct 2014
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyDe-escalation versus continuation of empirical antimicrobial treatment in severe sepsis: a multicenter non-blinded randomized noninferiority trial.
In patients with severe sepsis, no randomized clinical trial has tested the concept of de-escalation of empirical antimicrobial therapy. This study aimed to compare the de-escalation strategy with the continuation of an appropriate empirical treatment in those patients. ⋯ As compared to the continuation of the empirical antimicrobial treatment, a strategy based on de-escalation of antibiotics resulted in prolonged duration of ICU stay. However, it did not affect the mortality rate.