Is There A Mortality Effect of Emipiric Colistin In The Treatment of Acinetobacter Baumanni?

To investigate the effect of empirical or culture based colistin therapy on the mortality of intensive care medicine (ICU) patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. Patients treated in three Intensive Care Units of medical faculty of Erciyes University were included in this retrospective, descriptive study. The groups did not differ regarding the mean duration of intensive care stay (15 days vs. 20 days, p = 0.20) or in terms of the intensive care mortality (58.3% vs. 72.7%, p = 0.31). There was also no difference between the groups in 30-day in hospital mortality (61.1% vs. 78.8%, p = 0.12). In patients with severe sepsis/septic shock, there were no differences between the groups in which the colistin therapy was initiated empirically or based on sensitivity test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]