Optimizing Antimicrobial Use: Antimicrobial Stewardship and Surveillance, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Antibiotics (ISSN 2079-6382). This special issue belongs to the section "Antibiotics Use and Antimicrobial Stewardship".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 November 2026 | Viewed by 1182

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Pharmacy Department, Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau, C/San Quintín 89, 08041 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: antimicrobial stewardship; carbapenems; antibiotic resistance; beta lactamase; anti-bacterial agents
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The first edition of the Special Issue “Optimizing Antimicrobial Use: Antimicrobial Stewardship and Surveillance” was published in 2023. The success of this collection, with 6 excellent papers, has encouraged us to open a second edition on the same topic.

As a continuation of our work, this second edition will continue to focus on the global threat of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens and the role of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) in combating them. Building on previous studies evaluating the impact of ASPs on antibiotic use and resistance trends, this edition aims to further explore effective strategies within stewardship programs, compare implementation models, and identify interventions with the greatest impact in diverse healthcare settings.

Dr. Jesus Ruiz-Ramos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antibiotics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • antimicrobial stewardship
  • antimicrobial cycling
  • antimicrobial resistance
  • decision support
  • antibiotic optimization
  • antibiotic therapy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 1078 KB  
Article
Targeting Overtreatment of Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in the Emergency Department: Results from a Quasi-Experimental Clinical Pharmacist-Led Program Based on Education and Audit
by Alvaro Monje, Laura Escolà-Vergé, Alba Rivera, Sergio Herrera, Adrián Plaza, Pol Duch-Llorach, Virginia Pomar, Nerea Roch, Laia Rouras, Joaquín López-Contreras and Jesús Ruiz Ramos
Antibiotics 2025, 14(12), 1261; https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics14121261 - 14 Dec 2025
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Abstract
Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) is frequently overtreated in emergency departments (EDs), contributing to antimicrobial resistance without improving clinical outcomes. The rapid pace of clinical decision-making and high patient turnover in the ED further predispose clinicians to unnecessary antibiotic prescribing. Methods: A quasi-experimental study [...] Read more.
Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) is frequently overtreated in emergency departments (EDs), contributing to antimicrobial resistance without improving clinical outcomes. The rapid pace of clinical decision-making and high patient turnover in the ED further predispose clinicians to unnecessary antibiotic prescribing. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in the ED of a tertiary hospital in Barcelona, Spain, from January 2024 to September 2025. The intervention included targeted education for ED staff and daily audit-feedback on antibiotic prescriptions for suspected ASB. The outcomes were the following variables, compared between study periods: cases of ASB with unnecessary antibiotic treatment per month, antimicrobial consumption, urine culture (UC) requests, 30-day return visits to the ED for urinary tract infection, and 30-day all-cause mortality for safety assessment. Results: A total of 93 patients with suspected ASB in the pre-intervention period and 102 patients in the intervention period were included. The median cases of ASB with unnecessary antibiotic treatment per month decrease from 19 (IQR 16–26) in the pre-intervention period to 9 (IQR 9–13) in the intervention period (p = 0.018). Antimicrobial consumption declined: meropenem and imipenem decreased from 5.5 to 3.0 DDD/1000 admissions, ertapenem from 5.6 to 3.1, and ceftriaxone from 35.0 to 24.1. UC requests fell by 16.1%. Clinical safety outcomes did not differ significantly between periods: 30-day return visit to the ED for UTI with the same isolate dropped from 8.6% to 1.9% (p = 0.076), overall UTI return visits to the ED dropped from 11.8% to 5.9% (p = 0.225), and 30-day mortality remained stable (8.6% vs. 4.9%, p = 0.455). Conclusions: These findings support the use of combined educational and audit–feedback strategies as effective and safe Antimicrobial Stewardship interventions in high-intensity clinical environments such as the ED, as they reduce inappropriate antibiotic use and unnecessary UC requests without compromising patient safety. Full article
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