Rational antibiotic therapy
It's 1:40 AM, you are a doctor on duty in the Emergency Room, you are awaiting arrival of Emergency Medical Service with a patient in severe condition any minute. Suddenly, a new patient enters the full waiting room. Charles Pear (age 63) complains of fever, chill and shivering. He also feels weak. What are you going to do?
Help
I tell a nurse to make blood collections. Then I take a case history and continue with physical examination.
After taking a case history and physical examination, I advise the patient to go home, to take Panadol (effective drug: acetaminophen) to decrease the fever and to visit his GP for further examination next morning.
Patient shows sighs of inflammatory process, so I decide to start antibiotics empirically.
I take a case history, physically examine the patient and then I make blood collections.