Antibiotic stewardship in the intensive care unit: tools for de-escalation from the American Thoracic Society Meeting 2016

There was considerable discussion about the importance of antibiotic stewardship at the American Thoracic Society meeting in San Francisco in May 2016. Extensive literature in critical care suggests that use of early empiric antibiotics for the treatment of suspected sepsis and septic shock is crucial to clinical outcomes with delays in therapy being associated with increased mortality (1,2).