Impact of withholding early antibiotic therapy in nonseptic surgical patients with suspected nosocomial infection: a retrospective cohort analysis.

Background: Systemic inflammatory responses mimicking infectious complications are often present in surgical patients.

Methods: The objective was to assess the association between withholding early antimicrobial therapy while investigating alternative diagnoses and worse outcomes in nonseptic patients with suspected nosocomial infection in a retrospective cohort of critically ill surgical patients. The initiation of antibiotic therapy within 24 h of the suspicion of infection was defined as the Early Empirical Antibiotic strategy (EEA) group and the initiation after 24 h of suspicion or not prescribed was defined as the Conservative Antibiotic strategy (CA) group.