Confronting the threat of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria in critically ill patients.

The re-emergence of infection due to multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria in critically ill patients presents particular challenges to clinicians, given the lack of a pipeline of new antibiotics active against these resistant strains. Infected patients have a worse outcome than non-infected patients, although the additional contribution of antimicrobial resistance is less easy to define. Newer and better antibiotics would be welcome, but are unlikely alone to make a major impact on clinical outcomes.