TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Chapter 44. Antimicrobial Chemotherapy A1 - Benenson, Shmuel A2 - DeCherney, Alan H. A2 - Nathan, Lauren A2 - Laufer, Neri A2 - Roman, Ashley S. PY - 2013 T2 - CURRENT Diagnosis & Treatment: Obstetrics & Gynecology, 11e AB - Microbial infection has always been a grave threat to obstetric and gynecologic patients. Developments in antimicrobial therapy, however, have led to decreases in puerperal and postoperative morbidity and perinatal mortality. Indeed antibiotic development is one of the most important advances in medicine in the 20th century. Empiric antibiotics for bacterial infections improve clinical symptoms and outcome. As a consequence, clinicians prescribe antibiotics very frequently and sometimes even when it is not necessary. This approach has led to huge overuse of antibiotics, which in turn has led to the appearance of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Clinicians need to adopt an approach where effective antibiotic treatment is given to those who have bacterial infections, while at the same time antibiotic use is limited when not indicated. SN - PB - The McGraw-Hill Companies CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/10/07 UR - accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=56974017 ER -