Should all patients getting admitted to ICU be given antibiotics?

GREATER KAILASH, India - Sept. 16, 2013 - PRLog -- Giving people antibiotics before they are admitted to an ICU leads to a drop in patient deaths, as per a Dutch study, said Padma Shri & Dr. B.C. Roy National Awardee Dr. KK Aggarwal President, Heart Care Foundation of India and MTNL Perfect Health Mela.

The study, published in the journal New England Journal of Medicine, included nearly 6,000 patients treated at 13 hospitals in The Netherlands between 2004 and 2006. In the study, all the patients were expected to be on a ventilator for at least two days and/or to be admitted to the ICU for at least three days. The patients were grouped into three. The first group was given an oral antibiotic paste four times a day. The second group was given antibiotics through a gastric tube in the intestinal tract and by intravenous drip, plus the antibiotic paste. The third group was given the standard ICU care.

After four weeks, the preventive use of antibiotics reduced the number of deaths by 3.5 percent in the second group, and by 2.9 percent in the first group. The difference between the two groups treated with antibiotics was not significant.

The number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria did not increase in patients receiving antibiotic treatment.

About HCFI : The only National Not for profit NGO, on whose mega community health education events, Govt. of India has released two National commemorative stamps and one cancellation stamp, and who has conducted one to one training on” Hands only CPR 10” of 63400 people since 1^st November 2012.

The CPR 10 Mantra is – “within 10 minutes of death, earlier the better; at least for the next 10minutes, longer the better; compress the centre of the chest of the dead person continuously and effectively with a speed of 10x10 i.e. 100 per minute.”