What's the meaning of empirical antibiotic treatment?

Question

What's the meaning of empirical antibiotic treatment?

Answer 1

It means choosing an antibiotic using clinical considerations (the history and physical examination) and what is known about the organisms likely to account for those signs and symptoms as well as their local antibiotic susceptibilities rather than waiting for a culture to grow the organism and identify its susceptibilities. That is, we treat a clinical diagnosis rather than wait for a specific diagnosis. Here's what I mean:

Suppose you have a middle ear infection caused by a strain of Hemophilus influenza that is susceptible to sulfa drugs and penicillin (rare). I am your doctor, and after listening to and examining you, I conclude that you probably have a bacterial infection of your ear (otitis media). Rather than wait 2-3 days to find out what but this is and what it responds to, I may just give you amoxicillin or Augmentin because I know that they are effective perhaps 96% of the time in this clinical setting.

That's empiric therapy: not waiting for the specific diagnosis (otitis media secondary to penicillin and sulfa-sensitive H. influenza) to return to begin therapy.

Answer 2

Antibiotic Definition

Answer 3

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What's the meaning of empirical antibiotic treatment?
What's the meaning of empirical antibiotic treatment?

Answer 4

giving you a broad spectrum antibiotic, one that is commonly used to treat a broad range of common organisms...as opposed to doing a culture of the infected site and waiting for the causitive organism to be identified and giving the specific antibiotic that will treat that specific organism...

Answer 5

empirical = scientific investigation
antibiotic = a type of medication that kills bacteria

In other words, this is describing a scientific study that investigates the use of antibiotics.