Fundamentals of rational antibiotic therapy in outpatient pediatrics

Abstract

Antibiotics are one of the most prescribed groups of drugs in outpatient pediatric practice. To date, there are still disagreements about the need for the use of antibiotics and the optimal dosage regimen for many infections that pediatricians face daily. The authors conducted a search for publications in the PubMed, Google Scholar and eLibrary by the following keywords: «pediatric,» «antibiotics,» «antibiotic resistance,» «outpatient pediatrics» in English, and «педиатрия,» «антибиотики,» «антибиотикорезистентность,» «амбулаторная педиатрия» in Russian. Recent studies show that uncomplicated childhood infectious diseases in vaccinated children can be treated with shorter courses of antibiotics. The rational use of antibiotics in outpatient pediatric practice is of great importance for reducing resistance to them. Since the first step in choosing treatment tactics is to establish the etiology of the disease, future research should focus more on identifying potential biomarkers and diagnostic tests that allow rapid diagnosis of the etiology of an infectious disease, as well as optimizing the dosage and duration of antibiotic therapy courses.