Antimicrobial therapy of intra-abdominal sepsis.

Intra-abdominal sepsis remains a highly morbid and lethal event despite the availability of potent antimicrobial agents and improvements in surgical management and intensive care. Appropriate management consists of source control, antimicrobial agents directed against both facultative gram-negative and anaerobic organisms, and physiologic and metabolic support. A variety of single and dual agent regimens are appropriate for initial therapy, as long as both aerobes and anaerobes are effectively targeted. Culture, Gram stain, and sensitivity testing may provide valuable information, especially when resistant organisms are encountered. Further studies to determine the relative efficacy of various agents need to be carefully designed both to avoid the pitfalls of previous studies and to provide useful and comparable data.