Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy. Management of serious infections. Part I: Medical, socioeconomic, and legal issues. Selecting the antibiotic.

Variations in antibiotic pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics allow therapy to be readily adapted to the outpatient setting. Factors to be taken into account when designing an outpatient parenteral regimen include minimal inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations, post-antibiotic effect, half-life, protein binding, drug stability, IM versus i.v. administration, and continuous versus intermittent infusion.