Rapid microbiology and antimicrobial stewardship to combat antibiotic resistance

The extraordinary development of medicine with the advent of solid organ and bone marrow transplants, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, as well as the explosion of invasive procedures (« foreign material ») has made our medicine dependant to the use of antibiotics. The overuse of « empirical » antibiotics in breeding and medicine has favored the emergence and rapid dissemination of multidrug resistant pathogens (MDRs). This leaded clinicians today in a difficult situation. They should limit their empirical use of « broad-spectrum antibiotics », although they face a higher risk of MDRs. To help them in this task, anti-microbial stewardship programs have been put in place, emphasizing the use of « hospital antibiograms » and rapid and reliable microbiological diagnosis.