Intra-abdominal infections: model of antibiotic stewardship in an era with limited antimicrobial options

Antimicrobial stewardship entails diverse interventions aimed at reducing inappropriate antimicrobial use and limiting the emergence of resistance. Measures such as guidelines for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis, formulary including a list of restricted antibiotics, a multidisciplinary team for antibiotic management and in education, improved diagnostic methods, and computer assisted decision support systems have been proposed. Here we focus our attention on the management of complicated intraabdominal infections (cIAIs) as a possible model of antimicrobial stewardship.