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EPICO 3.0. Empirical antifungal therapy in critically-ill hematology patients

Llinares P, Ruiz I, Zaragoza R, Ferrer R, Rodríguez AH, Maseda E, Grau S, EPICO PROJECT GROUP

Revista iberoamericana de micologia, 2016

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although in the past decade the management of invasive fungal infections has improved, a number of controversies persist regarding empirical antifungal treatment in critically-ill hematology patients.

AIMS: To identify key clinical knowledge to elaborate a set of recommendations, with a high level of consensus, necessary for the approach to fungal infections in critically-ill hematology patients.

METHODS: A Spanish prospective questionnaire, which measures consensus through the Delphi technique, was anonymously answered and e-mailed by 30 multidisciplinary national experts, all specialists in fungal invasive infections from six scientific national societies; intensivists, anesthesiologists, microbiologists, pharmacologists and specialists in infectious diseases. They responded to 10 questions prepared by the coordination group after a thorough review of the literature published in the last few years. For a category to be selected, the level of agreement among the experts in each category must be equal to or greater than 70%. In a second round, 73 specialists attended a face-to-face meeting held after extracting the recommendations from the chosen topics, and validated the pre-selected recommendations and derived algorithm.

RESULTS: Assess administering antifungal treatment to patients with high/medium risk factors and fever for over 4 days after onset of antibiotic therapy, and in the event of negative galactomannan or if no detection analysis has been performed…

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