Objectives. The incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) due to multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms is increasing. Intravenous (IV) colistin or aerosolized (AS) plus IV colistin have been recently used to treat these life-threatening infections. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of AS plus IV colistin versus IV colistin alone for patients with MDR VAP due to gram-negative bacteria.

Objectives: Infection is a common cause of death among hemodialysis patients. The study investigated incidence, risk factors, clinical features and outcome of bloodstream infections (BSIs) in haemodialysis patients.

Antimicrobial combinations are at the moment the only potential treatment option for pandrug-resistant A. baumannii. A systematic review was conducted in PubMed and Scopus for studies reporting the activity of antimicrobial combinations against A. baumannii resistant to all components of the combination. The clinical relevance of synergistic combinations was assessed based on concentrations achieving synergy and PK/PD models. Eighty-four studies were retrieved including 818 eligible isolates. A variety of combinations (n = 141 double, n = 9 triple) were tested, with a variety of methods. Polymyxin-based combinations were the most studied, either as double or triple combinations with cell-wall acting agents (including sulbactam, carbapenems, glycopeptides), rifamycins and fosfomycin. Non-polymyxin combinations were predominantly based on rifampicin, fosfomycin, sulbactam and avibactam. Several combinations were synergistic at clinically relevant concentrations, while triple combinations appeared more active than the double ones. However, no combination was consistently synergistic against all strains tested. Notably, several studies reported synergy but at concentrations unlikely to be clinically relevant, or the concentration that synergy was observed was unclear. Selecting the most appropriate combinations is likely strain-specific and should be guided by in vitro synergy evaluation. Furthermore, there is an urgent need for clinical studies on the efficacy and safety of such combinations.