Year in review 2011: Critical Care - infection

There is an ever-growing importance for critical assessment of benefits and harms of various strategies with regards to antibiotic stewardship, infection control, molecular detection of pathogens and adequate treatment of multidrug-resistant organisms in ICUs. Ongoing financial constraints globally, changing demographics with an increasing and aging population and the slow introduction of new antibiotics make the utilisation of the best available evidence and goal-directed strategies essential in the ICU setting. This review will summarise findings from some of the recent major publications in the area of infectious diseases with emphasis on the role of behaviour change strategies for infection control purposes, the role of biomarkers such as C-reactive protein and procalcitonin, and the impact of molecular diagnostics in clinical decision-making. Furthermore, we will update readers on some recent findings in relation to invasive fungal infections, community-acquired pneumonia and ventilator-associated pneumonia in ICU patients.