Cost-effective aminoglycoside therapy in surgical patients.

There is a risk that the current pressures for hospital cost containment may result in inappropriately restrictive administrative measures. A failure to take into account all factors in estimating the cost of antibiotic therapy yields a greatly distorted view of the importance of acquisition costs. Higher-priced drugs may actually be more cost-effective if they have greater efficacy, wider therapeutic range, and/or are less costly to prepare and administer. Simple microcomputer modeling techniques may be easily employed to examine the economic consequences of therapeutic decisions.