Desensitization to ceftaroline in a patient with multiple medication hypersensitivity reactions.

Purpose: The case of a patient with multiple medication hypersensitivity reactions and a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection who underwent desensitization to ceftaroline is reported.

Summary: A 32-year-old Caucasian woman with asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease, heart murmur, and major depression was admitted for MRSA cellulitis with a subcutaneous abscess along the left sternomanubrial joint and clavicular osteomyelitis secondary to port placement after gastric bypass surgery. The patient had an extensive history of hypersensitivity reactions.

Powassan virus infection: case series and literature review from a single institution.

Background: Powassan virus is a flavivirus related to eastern hemisphere's tick-borne encephalitis viruses. It can cause a rare but potentially life-threatening disease including encephalitis.

Case Presentation: We report four cases of POWV infection in Minnesota and North Dakota with known exposure to tick bites in 2011.

Doripenem in hospital infections: a focus on nosocomial pneumonia, complicated intra-abdominal infections, and complicated urinary tract infections.

Doripenem is the latest carbapenem on the market to date. Although not an antibiotic in a new class, it offers a glimmer of hope in combating serious infections secondary to multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria when we have not seen a new class of antibacterial, particularly for Gram-negative bacteria, for more than 10 years. In vitro, doripenem exhibits a broad spectrum of activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, including extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and Amp-C β-lactamase producing Enterobacteriaceae and anaerobes.

A review of the carbapenems in clinical use and clinical trials.

Despite alarming data showing the ever increasing number of bacteria becoming resistant to different classes of antibiotics through various mechanisms, the carbapenems remain a unique class of antibiotics that possess the broadest spectrum against Gram-positive, Gram-negative, aerobic and anaerobic organisms. However, bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, carry mechanisms that can inactivate the carbapenems. This article gives a review of the carbapenems that are currently in clinical use as well as discusses the new carbapenems that are in clinical trials.