Patterns of antibiotics and pathogens for anastomotic leakage after colorectal cancer surgery

Intra-abdominal infection (IAI) represents a wide variety of pathological conditions that can involve lesions of all the intra-abdominal organs. It should be treated with appropriate antibiotic therapy with proper interventions for source control. Choice of appropriate antibiotic must be based on the results of the culture study; the strain that caused the infection, profile of bacteria, and resistance to antibiotics. However, because the results usually require a few days, empirical antibiotics should be administered first, and then, the extension of the administration or the replacement of antibiotics can be considered depending on the results of the test [1]. Antibiotic resistance disables several mechanisms of antibiotics against bacteria, subsequently increases medical expense, as well as affects effectiveness of antibiotics against infection [2-4]. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that the estimated minimum number of illnesses and deaths caused by antibiotics resistance were at least 2 million illness and 23,000 deaths each year in the United States [5]. In addition, guidelines already recommend appropriate antimicrobial agents on the basis of high-quality evidence and advise understanding of the microbiological profiles and resistance of the key pathogens causing IAI in Original Article Korean Journal of Clinical Oncology 2019;15:79-85 https://doi.org/10.14216/kjco.19015 pISSN 1738-8082 ∙ eISSN 2288-4084