Carbapenems:Essential Facts

Carbapenems are one of the more recently developed antibiotic classes. They give broad-spectrum anti-bacterial coverage and it is often the “go to” antibiotic when either the patient is very sick or have failed other treatments. The worry is that over-use of carbapenems in our hospitals will lead to high rates of multi-resistant bacteria.

Here are some questions on carbapenems:

Where do carbapenems originate from?

What is the mechanism of action of the carbapenems?

What carbapenems are used in clinical practice?

Are the commercially available carbapenems used orally?

What bacteria are inherently resistant to carbapenems?

Are carbapenems affected by AmpC or CTX type ESBLs?

What mechanisms can bacteria use to acquire resistance to carbapenemases.

What does the acronym NDM stand for?

What is the Hodge test?

 

Click here for answers to the questions

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