• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.88-99
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• 2021

Objective : The treatment of choice for spinal epidural abscess (SEA) generally is urgent surgery in combination with intravenous antibiotic treatment. However, the optimal duration of antibiotic treatment has not been established to date, although 4-8 weeks is generally advised. Moreover, some researchers have reported that bacteremia is a risk factor for failure of antibiotic treatment in SEA. In this study, we investigated the clinical characteristics of SEA accompanied by bacteremia and also determined whether the conventional 4-8 weeks of antibiotic treatment is sufficient. Methods : We retrospectively reviewed the medical records and radiological data of 23 patients with bacterial SEA who underwent open surgery from March 2010 to April 2020. All patients had bacteremia preoperatively and underwent weeks of perioperative antibiotic treatments based on their identified organisms until all symptoms of infection disappeared. All patients underwent microbiological studies of peripheral blood, specimens from SEA and concomitant infections. The mean follow-up duration was 35.2 months, excluding three patients who died. Results : The male : female ratio was 15 : 8, and the mean age was 68.9 years. The SEA most commonly involved the lumbar spinal segment (73.9%), and the mean size was 2.9 vertebral body lengths. Mean time periods of 8.4 days and 16.6 days were required from admission to diagnosis and from admission to surgery, respectively. Concomitant infections more frequently resulted in delayed diagnosis (p=0.032), masking the symptoms of SEA. Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly identified pathogen in both blood and surgical specimens. Seventeen patients (73.9%) showed no deficits at the final follow-up. The overall antibiotic treatment duration was a mean of 66.6 days, excluding three patients who died. This duration was longer than the conventionally advised 4-8 weeks (p=0.010), and psoas or paraspinal abscess required prolonged duration of antibiotic treatment (p=0.038). Conclusion : SEA accompanied by bacteremia required a longer duration (>8 weeks) of antibiotic treatment. In addition, the diagnosis was more frequently delayed in patients with concomitant infections. The duration of antibiotic treatment should be extended for SEA with bacteremia, and a high index of suspicion is mandatory for early diagnosis, especially in patients with concomitant infections.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2021

Objective: To identify the CT findings associated with treatment failure after antibiotic therapy for acute appendicitis. Materials and Methods: Altogether, 198 patients who received antibiotic therapy for appendicitis were identified by searching the hospital's surgery database. Selection criteria for antibiotic therapy were uncomplicated appendicitis with an appendiceal diameter equal to or less than 11 mm. The 86 patients included in the study were divided into a treatment success group and a treatment failure group. Treatment failure was defined as a resistance to antibiotic therapy or recurrent appendicitis during a 1-year follow-up period. Two radiologists independently evaluated the following CT findings: appendix-location, involved extent, maximal diameter, thickness, wall enhancement, focal wall defect, periappendiceal fat infiltration, and so on. For the quantitative analysis, two readers independently measured the CT values at the least attenuated wall of the appendix by drawing a round region of interest on the enhanced CT (HU_post) and non-enhanced CT (HU_pre). The degree of appendiceal wall enhancement (HU_sub) was calculated as the subtracted value between HU_post and HU_pre. A logistic regression analysis was used to identify the CT findings associated with treatment failure. Results: Sixty-four of 86 (74.4%) patients were successfully treated with antibiotic therapy, with treatment failure occurring in the remaining 22 (25.5%). The treatment failure group showed a higher frequency of hypoenhancement of the appendiceal wall than the success group (31.8% vs. 7.8%; p = 0.005). Upon quantitative analysis, both HU_post (46.7 ± 21.3 HU vs. 58.9 ± 22.0 HU; p = 0.027) and HU_sub (26.9 ± 17.3 HU vs. 35.4 ± 16.6 HU; p = 0.042) values were significantly lower in the treatment failure group than in the success group. Conclusion: Hypoenhancement of the appendiceal wall was significantly associated with treatment failure after antibiotic therapy for acute appendicitis.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.240-249
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• 2018

Purpose: The study was done to explore whether the duration of perioperative prophylactic antibiotics therapy influenced uncertainty of recovery in patients with elective laparoscopic uterine myomectomy. Methods: A prospective study was conducted using self-report questionnaires and electrical medical records for patients with uterine myomectomy. According to the length of the perioperative prophylactic antibiotics therapy, the patients were divided into three groups: single-dose antibiotic treatment group, short-term antibiotic treatment group, and long-term antibiotic treatment group. Data were collected from December 20, 2016 to July 31, 2017 from 161 patients who underwent laparoscopic myomectomy at a metropolitan city general hospital. Results: Level of uncertainty of recovery was $2.98{\pm}0.22$. The uncertainty was highest in the long-term antibiotic treatment group, followed by the short-term antibiotic treatment group and the single-dose antibiotic treatment group (F=89.40, p<.001). In the regression analysis, factors influencing uncertainty of recovery among uterine myomectomy patients were duration of perioperative prophylactic antibiotic therapy (${\beta}=.70$, p<.001) and duration of NPO (${\beta}=-.11$, p=.047) which explained 51.5% of the variance (F=83.75, p<.001). Conclusion: Based on these results, information including the administration of antibiotics before surgery should be provided to the patients to help reduce the uncertainty of postoperative recovery.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.487-491
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• 2019

Conservative therapy with appropriate antibiotics is essential for most patients with infectious spondylitis. Although most antibiotics do not cause problems if it used properly and serious side effects are rare, side effects can occur with any class of drugs and adverse reactions of antibiotics can range from mild allergic reactions to serious and fulminant adverse events. These side effects are also extremely variable from patient to patient and from antibiotic to antibiotic. A side effect of antibiotics may paradoxically increase inflammatory marker levels. Here, the author presents two cases of antibiotic-induced increase in inflammatory markers in cured infectious spondylitis. The patients were successfully treated after stopping the antibiotic therapy. The differential diagnosis between antibiotic side effects and infection should be considered very carefully because the treatment is completely different. Although the exact mechanisms underlying successful treatment without antibiotics are unclear, we should consider the side effects of antibiotics when following inflammatory markers during treatment of infectious spondylitis.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2021

The surroundings of livestock farms, including dairy farms, are known to be a major source of development and transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. To control antibioticresistant bacteria in the livestock breeding environment, farms have installed livestock wastewater treatment facilities to treat wastewater before discharging the final effluent in nearby rivers or streams. These facilities have been known to serve as hotspots for inter-bacterial antibiotic-resistance gene transfer and extensively antibiotic-resistant bacteria, owing to the accumulation of various antibiotic-resistant bacteria from the livestock breeding environment. This review discusses antibiotic usage in livestock farming, including dairy farms, livestock wastewater treatment plants as hotspots for antibiotic resistant bacteria, and nonenteric gram-negative bacteria from wastewater treatment plants, and previous findings in literature.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.172-179
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• 2017

Objectives: The aim of this clinical study is to describe the case of a patient with antibiotic-associated diarrhea, which was improved by treatment with herbal medicine. Methods: The antibiotic-associated diarrhea improved following treatment with Boikyangwi-tang and Opae-san for two months. During this period, western medicine, including antibiotics, was also administered. To evaluate the effect of the treatment, the Bristol Stool Form Scale was used. Results: During the treatment, the Bristol Stool Form Scale changed from type 7 to type 5. Conclusion: The results suggest that traditional Korean medicine may be an effective treatment for antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.64-71
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• 2018

Objectives The purpose of this study is to examine the correlation of antibiotics administration duration and antimicrobial resistance by reviewing domestic and foreign literatures. Methods We searched literatures dated up to 23 February, 2018 in PubMed and Cochrane Library using terms of "Anti-Bacterial Agents", "Carrier State", "Nasopharynx", "Drug Administration Schedule", and also searched via RISS (Research Information Service System), KISS (Koreanstudies Information Service System), DBpia (DataBase Periodical Information Academic) using terms of antibiotics, resistance, and dose. Results In comparison with shortened and standard antibiotic course, longer treatment duration is associated with greater antimicrobial resistance or non-significant difference, but we cannot find literature that shortened antibiotic course increases antimicrobial resistance on human nasopharyngeal flora. Conclusions Currently, there is no evidence that completing the standard antibiotic course reduces antimicrobial resistance. It can be a strategy for reducing antibiotic use to apply Korean medicine treatment, as well as short-course antibiotic therapy or delayed antibiotic prescription. Additional well-designed trials should be conducted in domestic and foreign settings about the appropriate duration of antibiotic therapy.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.189-194
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• 2020

In this study, we investigated the efficacy of Salmonella phage P22 combined with antibiotics to inhibit antibiotic-resistant S. Typhimurium CCARM 8009. The synergistic effect of phage P22 and antibiotics was evaluated by using disk diffusion and broth dilution assays. The development of Antimicrobial resistance was determined after time-kill assay. The antibiotic susceptibility assay showed the inhibition zone sizes around the antibiotic disks were increased up to 78.8% in the presence of phage (cefotaxime; 13.6%, chloramphenicol; 19.3%, ciprofloxacin; 12.7% and erythromycin; 78.8%). The minimum inhibitory concentration values of the combination treatment significantly decreased from 256 to 64 mg/mL for tetracycline, 8 to 4 mg/mL for chloramphenicol, 0.0156 to 0.0078 mg/mL for ciprofloxacin, 128 to 64 mg/mL for erythromycin and 512 to 256 mg/mL for streptomycin. The number of S. Typhimurium CCARM 8009 was approximately 4-log lower than that of the control throughout the combination treatment with phage P22 and ciprofloxacin delete at 37℃ for 20 h. The results indicate that the development of antimicrobial resistance in S. Typhimurium could be reduced in the presence of phage treatment. This study provides promising evidence for the phage-antibiotic combination as an effective treatment to control antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

• Journal of Urban Science
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.7-12
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to explore the issue of antibiotic misuse and the associated environmental problems, focusing on the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole used in animal agriculture. Antibiotic resistance is currently a global problem, exacerbated by the misuse of antibiotics in agriculture and animal husbandry. This study emphasizes the importance of investigating the potential environmental toxicity of antibiotics and discovering efficient treatment technologies. It discusses the use of advanced oxidation processes and artificial wetlands as potential approaches to mitigate the environmental impact of antibiotics, particularly sulfamethoxazole. In conclusion, the study underscores the need for research, data collection, monitoring, and effective environmental protection policies to combat antibiotic misuse and environmental pollution. It also emphasizes the significance of raising awareness and implementing proactive measures to address these issues.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.203-208
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• 2000

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementions of 0.1% probiotic and 0.1% yeast culture on the growth performance and meat quality of broiler chicks. A total of 160 Arbor Acre broiler chicks were randomly allotted to 16 pens ; four pens per treatment and 10 birds per pen. Feeding trial lasted for 6 weeks. The results obtained are summerized as follows : The body weight gain and feed intake was slightly higher in group of broiler chick supplemented antibiotic than those of other treatment groups, but were not significantly different among treatments. The feed conversion were slightly lower in groups of broiler chick supplemented antibiotic and probiotic than those of other treatment groups, but were not significantly different among treatments. The pH of thigh musle was slightly higher in group of broiler chick supplemented probiotic than those of other treatment groups. Crude protein, crude fat and crude ash of thigh muscle were lower in groups of broiler chick supplemented probiltic and yeast culture than those of other treatment groups, but were not significantly different among treatments. The saturated fatty acid content of the thigh muscle was tende to be higher in group of broiler chick supplemented yeast culture, but the unsaturated fatty acid content was tende to be lower in group of broiler chick supplemented yeast culture than those of other treatment groups.