Dr Ana Belén Fernández
Biography:
Prof Ana Belen Fernández, specialist in Anesthesiology and Resuscitation, has her greatest experience in the critically ill post-surgical patient, and abdominal septic shock. She is a researcher of Multidrug-Resistant Pseudomonas Infections and its more effective antibiotic treatment as well as the expansion of the high-risk clones by disemination of multiresistant bacteria. Currently belongs to the Department of Anesthesiology of the University Hospital Ntra Sra De Candelaria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife since 2005.
Abstract:
The increasing prevalence of nosocomial infections produced by multidrug-resistant (MDR) or extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Pseudomona Aeruginosa strains severely compromises the selection of appropiate treatments. Apart from its notable intrinsic resistance, P. Aeruginosa posses an extraordinary ability to develop resistance to nearly all available antimicrobials, through the selection of mutations in a complex network of genes implicated in resistance and their regulation. This fact has major consequences for the efficacy of treatments for P. Aeruginosa infections, mainly among critical patients at the ICU or those with chronic infections where the problem is magnified due to the high frequency of hypermutator strains, which present a spontaneous mutation rate up to 1000 times higher than normal. Ceftolozane- Tazobactam is a cephalosporin-ß-lactamase inhibitor combination that exhibits potent in vitro activity against Pseudomona Aeruginosa, including strains that are resistant to other ß-lactams, but emergence of resistance has been noted in various reported cases, probably by the previous administration of carbapenems, cephalosporin and / or piperacilin-tazobactam in patients critically illness. There is an urgent need to develop protocols and guidelines for each hospital in order to administer Ceftalozano- tazobactam in selected patients as the first therapeutic option, and thus decrease the growth of MDR/XDR P. aeruginosa strains.