Year in review 2010: Critical Care - infection

Infections remain among the most important concerns in critically ill patients. Early and reliable diagnosis of infection still poses difficulties in this setting but also represents a crucial step toward appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Increasing antimicrobial resistance challenges established approaches to the optimal management of infections in the intensive care unit. Rapid infection diagnosis, antibiotic dosing and optimization through pharmacologic indices, progress in the implementation of effective antimicrobial stewardship and infection control programs, and management of fungal infections are some of the most relevant issues in this special patient population. During the last 18 months, Critical Care and other journals have provided a wide array of descriptive and interventional clinical studies and scientific reports helping clinical investigators and critical care physicians to improve diagnosis, management, and therapy of infections in critically ill patients.