”Off-Label” use of antibiotics in critical patients

Abstract

In intensive care units, the most prescribed drugs are antibiotics, as result of the high incidence of infections among patients admitted to these units. In medical practice, antibiotic resistance is a phenomenon with dramatic consequences, which has led to the development of new strategies to solve this public health problem, including the use of ”off-label” drugs. Classification as an off-label prescription of a drug mainly refers to: unapproved therapeutic indication, formulation, dose (including dose interval), age or unapproved route of administration. The aim of this paper is to present the categories of appropriate ”off-label” use of drugs with a detailed description of the principles of use in this regime of antibiotics as mono- or combo-therapy.