Overview of Antibiotics

Question 1

Ways to classify bacterial organisms

Answer 1

1) aerobic vs. anaerobic
2) gram + or gram -
3) atypicals (spirochetes, mycoplasms, chlamydia)
4) morphology (cocci or rods)

Question 2

What is empiric treatment?

Answer 2

Starting an agent prior to knowing the identification or susceptibilities of the organism. Initial therapy should be BROAD SPECTRUM ad guided by typical and suspected organisms

Question 3

What are the influences of selecting empiric therapy

Answer 3

1) influenced by the site of infection

2) influenced by host factors (prior infections, social habits, travel history, immune system status)

Question 4

Bactericidal

Answer 4

Method of action eradicates the organism, “killing”

Question 5

Bacteriostatic

Answer 5

Method of action is to arrest the growth and replication until the host immune system can eliminate the organism.
“inhibits”
(if someone has a bad immune system, this would be bad to use because the person won’t have an immune system to mount a response)

Question 6

Antibiotic classifications

Answer 6

1) narrow spectrum- active against only a few species of microorganisms
2) broad spectrum - active against a wide variety of microorganisms (Gram +, Gram -, anaerobes)

Question 7

Mechanism of action classifications (6)

Answer 7

1) cell wall synthesis inhibitors
2) cell membrane disruption
3) bactericidal protein synthesis inhibitors
4) bacteriostatic protein synthesis inhibitors
5) bacterial DNA and RNA synthesis or integrity inhibitors
6) antimetabolites

Question 8

Common Antibiotic ADRs

Answer 8

1) antibiotic associated diarrhea
- disrupt the normal gut flora and this can be preventable with probiotics (at least 2 hours away)
2) clostrioides difficile diarrhea
3) Allergic reactions/anaphylaxis - out of all drug classes, these seem to have the most drug allergies
4) fungal superinfections