Background: Guidelines by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Infectious Disease Society of America recommend empiric antibiotics active against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for certain patient groups but do not base their recommendations on systematic review or attempt to quantify the benefit on mortality. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted using Embase, […]

Case Presentation: A 54 year old male with a history of intravenous drug use presented for three days of altered mental status, dyspnea, and low urine output. He was previously admitted a month ago for septic shock secondary to aortic valve endocarditis and underwent aortic valve repair, but left against medical advice before completing his […]

Case Presentation: A 55-year-old woman with no known past medical issues is admitted with a 1-week history of weakness and two days of fever and chills. Workup showed WBC count was 15600/µL, C-reactive protein of 14.3 mg/dL, procalcitonin of less than 0.05 ng/mL, and lactate of 0.7 mmol/L. Since procalcitonin was negative and there was […]