Internal Medicine

Answer 5 Use of a bacteriostatic antibiotic. Several basic treatment principles apply to the treatment of SBE. Prolonged IV therapy (4-6 weeks) is the cornerstone of management. Determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration and/or minimum bactericidal concentration is useful as well. Synergistic therapy with an aminoglycoside may be useful for expedient sterilization of blood cultures and often is utilized during the first several days of therapy. Bactericidal antibiotics such as ß-lactams are important agents for treating SBE; however, bacteriostatic agents such as macrolides should be avoided because use of these drugs do not reliably eradicate the infection. Click here to return to the questions

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