ABSTRACT
The purpose of performing antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is to provide in vitro data to help ensure that appropriate and adequate antimicrobial therapy is used to optimize treatment outcomes. In addition, the AST data generated daily can be statistically analyzed on an annual basis to generate an antibiogram that reflects the antimicrobial susceptibility and resistance patterns of important pathogens that prevail in a particular hospital. These hospital-specific AST epidemiologic data provide valuable guidance to the clinicians for the appropriate selection of empiric therapy, prior to the availability of culture and susceptibility results that often takes 2–3 days. The purpose of the AST of the culture pathogen is to help clinicians correct and/or modify empiric therapy as soon as the results become available.
