Short-Course Therapy for Intra-Abdominal Infection

For complicated intra-abdominal infections, the optimal duration of antimicrobial therapy after achievement of source control remains unclear. Now, in an open-label trial involving adults with such infections at 23 centers in the U.S. and Canada, researchers have investigated whether fixed-duration antimicrobial therapy (4 days) after source control is as effective as the traditional strategy (antibiotic administration until 2 days after resolution of fever, leukocytosis, and ileus).

Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to the fixed-duration (experimental) or the traditional-strategy (control) group, with therapy duration for the control group capped at 10 days. Follow-up lasted for 30 days after the initial source-control procedure and i…